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the FIRST INDIAN FEMALE TEACHER

 



The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality of the sexes is the dictionary definition of FEMINISM.

Don’t worry. I am not going to write about Feminism today. It is way to heavy a topic to be written about for my #wisewednesdays. But it is definitely something worth being read. Have no doubts about that. Not just because I am writing it, but also because of who it is being written about. I am sure most of you must be familiar about her, it’s ok even if you are not. No one is going to fine you for that.

A social reformer, educationalist and a poet, she is regarded as the first female teacher of India.

She opposed several of the then prevalent societal ills like child marriage, sati, untouchability, gender and caste based discrimination and advocated strongly for widow re marriages and inter caste marriages.

Born on 3rd January, 1831 and married at the age of 9 to a 13 year old social reformer who not only encouraged her to educate herself but supported her quest to educate and empower women.

The couple set up 18 schools for women between 1848 and 1852.

They set up the ‘Balahatya Pratibandhak Griha’ an open care centre for children of rape victims, victims who escaped female infanticide and Sati.

The couple also founded the ‘Satyashodak Samaj’ that organised marriages without dowry or even a priest.

They organised the first of its kind barbers strike after castigating them for shaving the heads of young widows.

They opened up their own water reservoir for everyone as an example against untouchability.

They established 52 boarding schools for orphans.

She was the first woman in India during those times who had performed the death rites of her husband and also planted a “Tulsi Vrindavan’ with his ashes on the spot where he was buried.

During the bubonic plague in 1897, she and her adopted son, opened a clinic to treat those affected by the disease but while caring for the patients, she contracted the disease herself and succumbed to it on 10th March 1897.

As a token of honour, on 10th March 1998, a stamp on her was released by Indian Postal Service and in 2015, as a tribute to her contribution in the field of education, the University of Pune was renamed after her name.

“The lack of learning is nothing but a gross bestiality. It is through the acquisition of knowledge that (one) loses the lower status and achieves the higher one.”

                         - SAVITRIBAI JYOTIRAO PHULE

“If you are an Indian woman who reads, you owe Savitribai Phule”

So says a piece published in Oikos Worldviews journal titled “SavitriBai and India’s Conversation on Education.”

This last piece says a lot about us than it says about her. I know each one of us is struggling hard with our demons in our own way. And knowing about such inspiring people makes it worthwhile.


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