Context: Every year on 3rd January, India celebrates Savitribai Phule Jayanti.

About Savitribai Phule

• Savitribai Phule: She was a social reformer, poet, and powerful voice who played a crucial role in India’s social reform movement during the 19th century.  
• Birth: She was born on January 3, 1831, in Naigaon village of Maharashtra. At the age of 9 years, she was married to Jyotirao Phule, who was 13 years old at the time. 
• Death: She passed away on 10th March 1897  while fighting the plague.

Savitribai Phule: Her Contribution

• Promotion of Education: 
  • Savitribai Phule is formally recognised as India’s first woman teacher.
  • In 1848, she founded the first school for girls in Pune.
  • Along with the support of her husband, She established two educational trusts viz. the Native Female School, Pune, and the Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs, and others from downtrodden castes. 
• Promoter of Widow Remarriage: She was a vocal advocate for the rights of widows and campaigned against the prevailing customs that forced widows into a life of deprivation and for the right of widows to remarry. 
  • She organized a barbers’ strike in both Mumbai and Pune to demonstrate their opposition to the practice of shaving the heads of widows.
• Social Reformer: 
  • She, along with her husband Jyotirao Phule,  founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, a social reform organization, to challenge the oppressive caste system.
  • Savitribai established a shelter (1864) for destitute women. Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule fought against untouchability.
  • In 1863, they began Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha, India’s first home prohibiting infanticide, helping pregnant Brahmin widows and rape victims. 
  • She started Mahila Seva Mandal to educate women about their rights and other oppressive social customs such as  dowry.
    • Her student Mukta Salve became an icon of Dalit feminism and literature
• Literary Contributions: Go, Get Education, Kavya Phule(1854) and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (1892).
• Role in Bubonic Plague of 1897: 

News Source: PIB