Haripal is from the Dalit community also known as Ganda caste in western orissa. He dropped out of school and never taken formal training for songs. He has borrowed this skill from his father Mandhata Haripal, who was a talented musician himself. He started his career as a singer in All India Radio (AIR) in 1971 and worked as a "Senior B High" grade as an artist. In the 70s he became popular because of Rangabati Song. After being a hit number on AIR, in 1976 the song got recorded again in Kolkata by a music company, INDRECO. A dispute over authorship of the tune stopped the release of the disc. Finally he won in the legal battle in courts and the disc was released in 1978–79.Although he rose to fame because of the Rangabati Song, which was in pure Sambalpuri dialect, he has not restricted himself to Sambalpuri folk music only. He used to listen folk music from everywhere. He is a versatile musician who understands and sings folk songs of various dialect such as Sambalpuri (Kosli Language, Bhojpuri, Odia, Chhattisgarhi and Dhakia Bengali music.His first song recorded and broadcast was ‘Bhalu Palala Patarake’ followed by ‘Hai Kustan Hai Kustan’, ‘Mandal Bajila’, ‘Lenjera Ghanti Delana’ and many more such songs but it was ‘Ranagabati’  which made him popular. Jitendra Haripal was awarded Padma Shri by the President of India in the year 2017.