In our country, there is a right to education in the rights given by the Constitution. Even though it is a different matter that many people of the country are still deprived of basic education. However, many years ago, very few people had the right to education. In this episode, women used to come at the lowest level. And at the same time, a woman was born, who not only became the first female teacher of India but who fought and inspired women to compete with society. The name of that woman and social reformer was Savitribai Phule. She started the big movement of education in India and turned it into a social movement.
Savitribai Phule and her husband Jyotirao Phule started a school in the year 1848 with only 9 students. She had no children and adopted Yashwantrao, the son of a Brahmin widow. When there was strong opposition in Phule family, the couple ended their relationship with their family.
In that time, he opposed the evils of the society
At the time of marriage, Savitri Bai Phule was completely illiterate, while her husband had studied up to third grade. In the era when she was dreaming of reading, then according to an incident at that time with the Dalits, one day Savitri was turning the pages of an English book when her father saw it. She came running and snatched the book out of her hand and threw it out. The reason behind this is that the right to education is only for the upper caste men, it was a sin for the Dalits and women to get education. On the same day, she brought back the book and vowed that whatever happens, she will definitely learn to read one day or the other.
How a woman made a place in the Shantaraj, which is considered to be the sport of men.
Apart from education for women, they also worked for their rights
Savitribai, who struggled for women’s rights, established a center for widows and encouraged them to remarry. They fought for the rights of untouchables. During the outbreak of plague in 1897, she along with her son opened a hospital in Pune and treated people considered untouchable. However, she herself suffered from the plague and died in March of the same year.
She had the same passion that one day she herself studied and together with her husband Jyotiba Rao Phule opened 18 schools for girls. Let me tell you, in the year 1848, the first girls’ school in the country was established in Pune, Maharashtra. At the same time, the eighteenth school was also opened in Pune. On January 28, 1853, she established a child homicide ban house for pregnant rape victims.
At the time when Savitribai was agitating for education, the society was cluttered in its fetters. It is said that when she went to school, people used to throw stones at them to protest them, someone used to throw garbage on them. But, she was sure of her tune. She continued regardless of social boycott.
Savitri Bai Phule, being the first female teacher of this country, will be remembered for giving her whole life in the struggle for the rights of the deprived sections of the society, especially women and Dalits.