Summary
Hailed as the country's first woman teacher, Savitribai Phule was also a social worker and a poet. Her husband Jyotirao Phule educated her at home and trained her to become a teacher. Savitribai Phule along with her husband is credited with laying the foundation of education opportunities for women in India and played a major role in the struggle for women's rights in the country during the British Raj.
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Hailed as the country's first woman teacher, Savitribai Phule was also a social worker and a poet. She was born in a family of farmers in Naigaon, Maharashtra on January 3, 1831. Savitribai Phule along with her husband is credited with laying the foundation of education opportunities for women in India and played a major role in the struggle for women's rights in the country during the British Raj. Many of her poems were against discrimination and spoke about the need to get educated. She campaigned against untouchability, Sati tradition, child marriage and other social evils most of her life.
Early Life : She was the eldest daughter of Lakshmi and Khandoji Neveshe Patil. At the age of 9, in 1840, she was married to 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule. Savitribai and Jyotirao had no children of their own but they adopted Yashavantrao, a son born to a Brahmin widow.
Education and Career : Jyotirao Phule educated her at home and trained her to become a teacher. Along with her husband, also a social reformer, she opened 18 schools for girls, going on to become India's first woman teacher and headmistress. In order to encourage students to study and reduce the drop-out rate, she used to give stipends to children for attending school. At a time when caste system was embedded in Indian society, she promoted inter-caste marriages. She along with her husband founded the Satyashodhak samaj which used organise marriages without a priest and dowry.
Social Work : She observed the miserable conditions of pregnant rape victims and therefore, along with her husband, opened a care centre "Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha". In order to reduce the miseries of the widows, she organised and led a strike against the barbers to dissuade them from shaving the heads of the widows which was a norm back in those days.
Legacy : In her honour, the University of Pune was renamed Savitribai Phule University in 2014. The Phule couple was honoured by the government for their commendable efforts in the field of education. On 10 March 1998 a stamp was released by India Post in honour of Phule.
Death : Savitribai and her adopted son, Yashwant, opened a clinic to treat those affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague when it appeared in the area around Nallasopara in 1897. The clinic was established at stern outskirts of Pune, in an area free of infection. Savitribai personally took patients to the clinic where her son served them. While caring for the patients, she contracted the disease herself. She died from it on 10 March 1897 while serving a plague patient.
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