Prelims Perspective: What needs to be learned?
- Who is she?
- Reform Movement
- Literature Works
Mains Perspective: Notes need to be prepared
- Social Reform Movement (GS 1 –Modern History, Society)
What needs to be known?
- Savitribai Phule
- Who is she?
- She was a social reformer who worked for women’s empowerment along with her husband, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.
- Fact: Savitribai Phule is formally recognised as India’s first woman teacher.
- Initiatives for the Society
- Established the first girls’ school in India at Poona.
- She established Mahila Seva Mandal (1852).
- In 1853, along with Jyotirao, Savitribai started the Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha (‘Home for the Prevention of Infanticide’) for pregnant widows facing discrimination.
- She advocated inter-caste marriages, widow remarriage, and eradication of child marriage, sati, and dowry systems, among other social issues.
- In 1873, the Phules set up the Satyashodhak Samaj (‘Truth-seekers’ society’), a platform open to all, irrespective of their caste, religion or class hierarchies, with the sole aim of bringing social equity.
- Literature Works
- Her first collection of poems, called Kavya Phule (‘Poetry’s Blossoms’) in 1854.
- She published Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (‘The Ocean of Pure Gems’), in 1892.
- Who is she?
Source: The Hindu