We may have forgotten but google didn’t! On 3rd January Google devoted its doodle to Savitribai Jyotirao Phule’s 186th Birthday.
Savitribai was born in 1831 and is considered one of India’s most renowned social and political reformers and educationists. She was born into a farmer’s family in Naigaon, Maharashtra where her parents married her off at the age of 9. She noticed the plight of girls in her neighborhood and as she grew up, she decided to work towards getting the unfair practice of child marriage abolished. In 1848 she, along with her husband, started the first women’s school in the area, as an attempt to empower girls in the Indian society. Being a pioneer in the world of Marathi poetry she also inspired people through her words.
Her contribution to our society is unmatched. At a time when child marriage and an increasing mortality rate among young men was leaving little girls widows, she stepped up and fought to change their lot in life. Her husband supported her struggle for the widows’ rights to life and a place in society. For women who fell pregnant young and were abandoned by their families, she opened a care center called “Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha.”
She died during the Third Pandemic in 1897, taking care of infected people. For all her sacrifices and the battles she fought and won for the women of India, Maharashtra Government paid her the tribute of renaming the Pune University after her.
