Savitribai Phule: A Life Devoted to Women’s Empowerment and Upliftment

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 10th March. There are numerous significant reasons why March 10th is remembered in both national and global history. In the context of India, this date is particularly significant for women’s education. The reason is that Savitribai Phule, the nation’s first female teacher, passed away on this day in 1897. In Naigaon, Satara, Maharashtra, on March 3, 1831, Savitribai was born into a farming family. She is referred to as the nation’s leader in women’s education. Her whole life, she worked to improve the status of women. She is regarded as one of the nation’s pioneering modern feminists. Savitribai was not only a teacher but also a poet, philosopher, and social reformer. Her poems primarily addressed the environment, education, and the dismantling of the caste system. Savitribai Phule opposed the evils that were common in the society at the time, such as untouchability, child marriage, Sati practice, and widow remarriage, in addition to fighting for women’s rights and education in the nation. Her entire life, he battled against these.

At the tender age of nine, she tied the knot with Jyotirao Phule, then thirteen, in 1840. When they got married, she had no formal education. Only men were thought to have the right to an education at that time. In spite of the societal mindset, Savitribai received an education. She was initially attacked with rocks and trash thrown at her when she went to school.

Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai’s spouse, was a social reformer as well and encouraged her in all of her endeavors. He established eighteen schools and placed a strong emphasis on the education of girls.  Women’s education was the focus of much of the work done by Savitribai and Jyotirao. Savitribai began teaching girls at a very young age after her marriage. In 1848, Savitribai and her spouse Jyotirao established the nation’s first girls’ school in Pune, during a period when girls weren’t supposed to go to school. Following this, the two of them jointly opened seventeen more schools for girls.

Savitribai battled against the corrupt caste system that was pervasive in the society in addition to advocating for women’s rights. She dug a well for the untouchables in his home as part of his fervent desire to end the caste system. Savitribai took an unusual approach to keeping children and preventing them from quitting. She used children to provide stipends for the school. She encouraged marriages between different castes during the height of the nation’s caste system. The “Satyashodhak Samaj,” which performed marriages without priests or dowries, was established in September 1873 by her and her husband. This society was founded with the intention of ending child marriages, widow remarriage, and intercaste marriages while also offering affordable marriages. None of Savitribai and Jyotirao’s children were born. Yashwant was a widow’s son whom she adopted. Later on, Yashwant graduated to become a doctor. In 1897, there was a plague outbreak in Pune. Savitribai Phule, who was 66 years old, passed away in Pune as a result of this epidemic.