She was married at a very young age to Jyotirao Phule. In those days, teaching one’s wife was considered unthinkable. Yet Jyotirao believed that knowledge was not a privilege but a right. At night, by the light of a small lamp, he taught Savitribai to read and write. Those letters did more than educate her—they awakened her. She began to see that her personal freedom meant nothing if thousands of other girls remained trapped in ignorance.
In 1848, in Pune, the Phule couple opened India’s first school for girls. Savitribai became its teacher. From that moment, she also became a target. As she walked to school every day, people hurled stones, mud, and garbage at her. They insulted her, tried to humiliate her, and warned her to stop. Savitribai carried an extra sari with her, not to surrender, but to change her clothes and continue teaching without missing a single class. Education, for her, could not wait.
Even their own families turned against them. The Phules were thrown out of their home. Yet this rejection only strengthened their resolve. By 1851, what had begun as a single school grew into a movement. Multiple schools for girls opened across Pune, including schools for girls from oppressed castes—something unheard of at the time. Slowly, society began to notice that educated girls did not destroy families; they strengthened them. Resistance began to turn into reluctant acceptance.
But Savitribai’s vision extended far beyond classrooms. She witnessed the brutal treatment of widows and unmarried pregnant women, who were shamed, abandoned, and often forced into unsafe abortions or driven to kill their newborns. Savitribai refused to accept this cruelty. Along with Jyotirao, she started "Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha" a shelter home where pregnant women could live safely, give birth with dignity, and protect their children. One such child, born to a widow, was adopted by the Phules and named Yashwant Phule, who later became a doctor.
As years passed, Savitribai realized that education alone was not enough—social structures themselves had to change. In 1873, she and Jyotirao founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, a movement that challenged caste oppression, rejected blind religious rituals, promoted equality between men and women, and introduced marriages without priests or caste barriers. Through this movement, Savitribai gave women something they had never been allowed before: a public voice.
In Savitribai Phule’s time, educating girls was considered a crime. Today, it is recognized as a right. That transformation did not happen naturally. It came from the courage of a woman who walked through hatred carrying books.
Savitribai Phule was not just India’s first woman teacher.
She was the first to teach a girl how to stand without fear.
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