Savitribai Phule

Savitribai Phule was born on 3rd January, 1831, Naigaon, in Maharashtra. She was a social reformer, pioneer of education especially for women and a feminist. Phule was born to Khandoji Navse Patil and LaxmiBai. She was one of the first female teachers in India and opened several schools for girls with her husband, Jyotirao Phule. Savitribai along with her husband challenged the evil practises of castism and social discrimination. Savitribai Phule is often cited as a benchmark for women’s empowerment and feminism in India.

Savitribai was born in a small village called Naigaon in the Maharashtra state in India. She was married to Jyotirao Phule at the age of nine, and she moved to Poona (later became Pune) to live with her husband. Jyotirao was impressed by his wife’s enthusiasm to learn and educated his wife. Later Savitribai Phule was trained to be an educator at institutes run by Christian missionaries in Ahmednagar (now Ahilyanagar) and Poona. In the year 1847, Savitribai became a qualified teacher. The Phules opened a school for girls from lower-caste at Bhidewada, Poona, with six girls as their first students. In 1849, Savitribai started a school for adults which were open to all castes. Savitribai was humiliated by various sections of society, especially the upper castes who did not want any change in the caste system prevailed at that time. On her way to school, as Savitribai was abused and thrown with stones, mud and dung, she started carrying a additional sari with her to change after reaching school.

In 1849 Savitribai’s husband along with his wife Savitribai left his family home as they were asked to leave by Savitribai’s father-in-law. The Phules were running three schools attended by more than 150 girl students in 1851. They opened a total of 18 schools for girls in the Poona region. In the year 1852, the British government in India declared Savitribai Phule as the best teacher in the Bombay Presidency. Savitribai campaigned against the evil practises like child marriage, infanticide, and sati. As lower caste people were not allowed to use village well, Phule along with her husband dug a well in their backyard which caused a furore at the time. In 1873, Phule played a key role in the formation of Satyashodhak Samaj (“Society of Truth Seekers”). The society was intended to promote social equality, unite and uplift lower castes, and reverse the socioeconomic inequality caused by the caste system existed at that time. The society also emphasized the importance of education and encouraged people to start the practice of Satyashodhak marriage, organized without a priest or dowry, in which couples took an oath in favour of education and equality. Jyotirao Phule died in 1890, and Savitribai Phule lit his funeral fire, challenging social convention that last rites should be performed only by men. Savitribai had set up a clinic for plague victims during an outbreak in the area but contracted the disease herself. Savitribai was infected by a type of plague and lost her life in 1897. In 1998 India Post released a postal stamp and in 2014 the state government of Maharashtra renamed the University of Pune as Savitribai Phule Pune University, in her honour.