WHO WAS THE FIRST INDIAN WOMAN TO OPEN A SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

Savitribai Jyotirao Phule is still alive in our hearts by becoming an example. As soon as his name comes to the fore, his head rises high with pride. The country and society will always be indebted to Savitri Bai Phule for her incomparable contribution to education. 

   

At the time when Phule lit the flame of education, at that time girls were kept deprived of education, yet she took up the cause of women's education and carried it to its end. After which women from the frustrated sections of the society also started coming forward to take education. 1852 Savitribai Phule was the first principal of India's first girls' school and the founder of the first farmer's school. 

Mahatma Jyotirao is regarded as one of the most important figures in the social reform movement in Maharashtra and India. She is known for her efforts to educate women and downtrodden castes. Jyotirao, later known as Jyotiba, was the patron, mentor and supporter of Savitribai. Savitribai lived her life as a mission whose objective was to get widow remarriage, eradicate untouchability, women's emancipation and educate Dalit women. She was also a poet, she was also known as Adikaviyatri of Marathi.

Introduction

Savitribai Jyotirao Phule was born (3 January 1831 – 10 March 1897) in a Dalit family in Nayagaon, Satara district of Maharashtra. Savitribai Jyotirao Phule's father's name was Khandoji Navase and mother's name was Lakshmi.

 

 

Savitribai is India's first female teacher, as well as the first leader of India's women's liberation movement, social reformer and she is considered the forerunner of modern Marathi poetry. Along with her husband Jyotirao Govindrao Phule, she did remarkable work in the field of women's rights and education.

 Savitribai was married at the age of nine

She was married at the age of 9 with the social worker Jyotirao Phule in 1840. After marriage, she soon moved to Pune with her husband.

She was illiterate when she got married. But he was very fond of studies. Savitribai's dream was to get higher education. But at that time there was a lot of discrimination with the Dalits. Historians tell that one day Phule was seen by his father while turning the pages of an English book. Came to Savitri and snatched the book and threw it out. Savitri did not understand. When he asked his father the reason, he said that only upper caste men have the right to study.At that time it was a sin for women to study along with Dalits. After this incident, Savitribai vowed that whatever happens, she will definitely take education. Impressed by her passion for reading and learning, her husband taught her to read and write further. Savitribai took training to become a teacher in Ahmednagar and Pune and became a qualified teacher. He fulfilled this vow on the strength of his efforts. Few people know that Savitri Bai Phule was a poet. 41 of his poems were published in 1854 which are still available today.

Social difficulties (people pelting stones, throwing dirt instead of giving education)

Today the women of India may have established their supremacy from technology to space, but before independence, women in India were counted in second class. They did not have the right to education like today. On the other hand, if we talk about the 18th century, then it was considered a sin for women to go to school at that time. What Savitribai Phule has done at such a time is no ordinary achievement. He had to face strong opposition from the society for educating the girl child. Many times it happened when they had to eat stones from the contractors of the society. People used to throw dirt, mud, dung, even feces on them. Savitribai used to carry a sari in her bag and on reaching school used to change the sari that had been soiled. Gives very good motivation to keep walking on your path.

 Founded the first school on his birthday 

Savitribai, along with her husband, founded the first school in Pune on January 3, 1848, on her 18th birthday. In which nine girl students of different castes were admitted. In a year, Savitribai and Mahatma Phule were successful in opening five new schools. 

The then government also honored him. How difficult it must have been for a female principal to run a girls' school in the year 1848, it probably cannot be imagined even today. There were social restrictions on the education of girls at that time. Savitribai Phule not only studied herself during that period, but also arranged for the education of other girls.

Savitribai's goal was to give women their rights in the society. 

The plight of widows in the country also hurt Savitribai a lot. So in 1854 he opened a shelter for widows. After years of continuous improvement she was able to convert it into a large shelter in 1864. Destitute women, widows and child daughters-in-law who were abandoned by their families started getting space in this shelter home. Savitribai used to teach and write to all of them.He also adopted Yashwantrao, the son of a widow dependent in this institution. At that time, Dalits and low caste people were forbidden to go to the common villages to get water from the well. This bothered her and her husband a lot. So she dug a well along with her husband so that those people too could easily get water. There was a lot of opposition to his move at that time.

Did her husband's last rites himself 

Savitribai's husband Jyotirao died in 1890. At that time, leaving behind all social norms, she performed the last rites of her husband and lit his funeral pyre.

Death

Seven years after her husband's death, when plague spread all over Maharashtra in 1897, she set out to help the people in the affected areas, during which she herself became a victim of plague and breathed her last on March 10, 1897. .