About SAVITRIBAI PHULE (UPSC)

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Context: Recently, The Prime Minister has paid homage to Savitribai Phule on her birth anniversary.

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Savitribai Phule, the social reformer who is considered to be one of India’s first modern feminists, was born on January 3, 1831.
Phule was born in Naigaon, Maharashtra in 1831 and married activist and social-reformer Jyotirao Phule when she was nine years old.
After marriage, with her husband’s support, Phule learned to read and write and both of them eventually went on to found India’s first school for girls called Bhide Wada in Pune in 1948.
Before this, she started a school with Jyotirao’s cousin Saganbai in Maharwada in 1847.
Both Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule recognised that education was one of the central planks through which women and the depressed classes could become empowered and hope to stand on an equal footing with the rest of the society.
By 1851, Phule had set up three schools and was the teacher of 150 students. She would go on to established 17 schools in the country and although most of them were for upper-caste women, she and her husband set up schools for Dalit and lower-caste women as well. Phule encouraged women to attend school by offering them stipends.
Women’s education was not the only thing Phule wanted Indians to take up.
She also fought against social injustices of the time like Sati, child marriage and the still prevalent caste system and was also one of the first advocates for women’s rights in the country.
She opened a well for ‘untouchables’ at her residence in a defiant act against the caste system and also started a care centre for pregnant rape victims called ‘Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha’.
Phule also set up a ‘Mahila Seva Mandal’ where women would gather and she would raise awareness about women’s rights.
Apart from being a pioneer of Indian feminism, Phule was a plague warrior. She helped several people when the bubonic plague hit the world, opening up a clinic with her son, Yashwant, in 1897 to help patients. The plague ended up being the reason of her demise as she passed away on March 10, 1897.