Savitribai Phule is regarded as the first Female teacher in India.
She is an icon who played a key role in fighting for women rights, she was a reformer, educationist and also a Poet. Along with her husband they opened couple of girl schools in Pune. She fought against caste and gender based discrimination, Sati practice, Child Marriage and for many other causes.
It is because of people like her, we have a progressive county where women are given the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts and in many cases excel beyond them. She was surrounded by conservatives but that did not deter her to get educated and promote them for other girls. Her life is a role model for all of us.
It is shocking and surprisingly true on one side we have a progressive India where we have women in positions like our Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Scientists, leading company CEO’s and many others. On the other side, we often hear news about women being harassed in broad daylight, given 2nd priority when it comes to education & work, female foeticides, rapes, etc. The progressiveness of a country is measured by the # of women educated, and the how many of them are in leading positions.
University of Pune is one of the leading universities across the globe. In honor of Savitribai Phule, the institution name was changed from University of Pune to “Savitribai Phule Pune University” on 9 August 2014.
3rd January is her birth anniversary, on this occasion as part of team Euphoria I would request all of us to read articles about Savitribai Phule and follow some of the teachings she had given us.
