Savitribai Phule

Subject – History

Context – Birth Anniversary on 3 January 1831

Concept –

Savitribai Phule (3 January 1831 – 10 March 1897) was an Indian social reformer, educationalist, and poet from Maharashtra.
She is regarded as the first female teacher of India. Along with her husband, JyotiraoPhule, she played an important and vital role in improving women’s rights in India.
She is regarded as the mother of Indian feminism.
Savitribai and her husband founded one of the first Indian girls’ school in Pune, at Bhidewada in 1848.
- It was the country’s first school for women started by Indians.
She worked to abolish the discrimination and unfair treatment of people based on caste and gender.
In the 1850s, the Phule couple initiated two educational trusts—the Native Female School, Pune and The Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs and Etceteras—which came to have many schools under them.
She published Kavya Phule in 1854 and Bavan Kashi SubodhRatnakar in 1892. In her poem, Go, Get Education, she urges the oppressed communities to get an education and break free from the chains of oppression.
In 1852, Savitribai started the MahilaSeva Mandal to raise awareness about women’s rights.
She simultaneously campaigned against child marriage, while supporting widow remarriage.