A profile of Annpurna Devi

Smt. Annpurna Devi is an Indian legislator who serves as Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development in the Government of India and represents the Koderma parliamentary constituency of Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha. Her public career spans three legislatures — the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly and the Lok Sabha — and ministerial office in the governments of Bihar, Jharkhand and India.

The record below is compiled from her member record in the Lok Sabha, the official profile published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Election Commission of India and releases of the Press Information Bureau. Where a detail comes only from press reporting, it is identified as such.

Annpurna Devi was born on 2 February 1970. The Lok Sabha records her place of birth as Ajmeri, in Dumka — at the time a district of undivided Bihar, and since November 2000 part of Jharkhand. The Ministry of Women and Child Development describes her as hailing from the village of Kariyabar in Koderma district, the area she has represented in both state and national legislatures; her permanent address in the Lok Sabha record is in the same village.

Her parents are recorded as Shri Taraprasanna Mahto and Smt. Rewati Devi. She married on 13 March 1993 and has two sons and a daughter. Her 2024 election affidavit records her as the widow of the late Ramesh Prasad Yadav. The Lok Sabha record does not list hobbies, social activities or publications, and this website does not supply them.

The Early Life chapter sets these facts against the history and geography of the region.

She is a post-graduate of Ranchi University. Both the Lok Sabha and the Ministry record the qualification as “Post Graduate”; her 2024 election affidavit specifies a post-graduate degree in History. The year of completion is not given in the sources consulted.

Her public career begins in 1998, the year the Lok Sabha record shows her first becoming a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Press accounts — PTI in June 2024 and Outlook in May 2026 — report that she entered electoral politics after the death that year of her husband, Ramesh Prasad Yadav, who had represented Koderma in the Assembly, and that she won the resulting by-election. The two accounts differ on his party; official records consulted for this website do not describe him.

For two decades she was associated with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and press reports describe her as its Jharkhand state president before she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi in March 2019. In September 2020 the BJP named her one of its national vice-presidents, as reported by ANI and other agencies.

The Lok Sabha’s list of positions records her as a Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2000 and as a Member of the “Bihar/Jharkhand Legislative Assembly” from 2000 to 2005 — a description that reflects the division of Bihar in November 2000, when the constituencies of Bihar’s southern districts, Koderma among them, passed to the new state of Jharkhand.

In 2000 she was Minister of State for Mines and Geology in the Government of Bihar. The Ministry of Women and Child Development’s profile summarises this period as her election to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1998, 2000 and 2005.

The Lok Sabha records her as a Member of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly for two terms, 2005 to 2014. From 2005 to 2009 she chaired the Assembly’s Committee on Women & Child Welfare — an early link to the portfolio she holds today.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Ministry record that she was a Cabinet Minister in the Government of Jharkhand, 2012–2014, with the portfolios of Irrigation, Women and Child Welfare, and Registration. Contemporary reporting in The Tribune (14 July 2013) records her swearing-in as a minister at Raj Bhavan, Ranchi, on 13 July 2013, as the leader of the RJD legislature party in the coalition government then formed.

She was elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from Koderma in May 2019. As a member she served on the Standing Committee on Industry (13 September 2019 – 7 July 2021), the Committee on Empowerment of Women (9 October 2019 – 7 July 2021) and the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

PRS Legislative Research, which tracks members’ participation, records for her in the 17th Lok Sabha an attendance of 79% (against a national average of 79%), 31 debates and 97 questions, with no private member’s bills. PRS notes that ministers do not sign the attendance register or ask questions, so these figures reflect her time as a member before July 2021.

Re-elected in 2024, she sits in the 18th Lok Sabha as a minister. The Parliamentary Work chapter lists her documented interventions, questions and ministerial replies with dates and sources.

On 7 July 2021 she was appointed Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, a post she held until her elevation to the Cabinet in June 2024. The period coincided with the early implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, the NIPUN Bharat mission for foundational literacy and numeracy, and the PM SHRI schools scheme.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development’s profile records that she headed an expert committee on Revision of RTE (Right to Education) in view of National Education Policy 2020. Parliamentary records show her answering written questions on PM SHRI schools, PM POSHAN, NIPUN Bharat and Samagra Shiksha, and PIB documents her at events including the National Achievement Survey workshop (July 2022) and Shikshak Parv 2022.

The Education chapter places this work in its policy context.

She was sworn in as a Union Cabinet Minister on 9 June 2024, was allocated the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and took charge at the Ministry on 11 June 2024; Smt. Savitri Thakur assumed charge as Minister of State in the same Ministry (PIB, release 2024158).

The Ministry, which became a separate ministry in 2006, administers three umbrella missions — Mission Saksham Anganwadi & POSHAN 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya — and oversees the National Commission for Women, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the Central Adoption Resource Authority and the Savitribai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development.

Documented activities in this office include a national review with state ministers (August 2024), the launch of the Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign (November 2024), India’s national statement at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (March 2025), the first National Consultation on Gender Budgeting (June 2025), and the BRICS Women Ministerial Meeting at Kochi under India’s chairship (July 2026). The Public Engagements journal records each with its source.

Koderma — spelled “Kodarma” in Election Commission records, where it is parliamentary constituency no. 5 of Jharkhand — covers all of Koderma district and parts of Hazaribagh and Giridih districts through six assembly segments: Kodarma, Barkatha, Dhanwar, Bagodar, Jamua and Gandey.

In 2019 she won the seat with 7,53,016 votes, 62.26% of votes polled, a margin of 4,55,600. In 2024 she was re-elected with 7,91,657 votes, 57.79%, a margin of 3,77,014 (Election Commission of India).

As a member before joining the Council of Ministers, she raised constituency matters in the Lok Sabha that included the revival of the mica industry in Giridih and Kodarma, the doubling of the Madhupur–Giridih–Kodarma rail line, trauma care on national highways, and land rights for people displaced by the Tilaiya dam.