Savitribai Phule was a social reformer and poet.
Google remembers Savitribai Phule on her 186th birthday with a Doodle showing the social activist urging a group of women towards a school.
Born on January 3, 1837 into a family of farmers in Naigaon, Maharashtra, Savitribai Phule was a social reformer and poet. She is regarded as an important figure in Maharashtra’s social reform movements.
She was only nine years old when she got married to 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule. Jyotirao Phule encouraged Savitribai to study. Along with her husband, Savitribai played a major role in the struggle for women’s rights in India during the British Raj.
Savitribai Phule wrote a number of poems for the upliftment of dalits and women. She also opened a care center named ‘Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha’ for pregnant rape victims and helped deliver their children. Savitribai was also India’s first woman teacher and headmistress.
Yashwantrao Phule, the adopted son of Savitribai Phule and Jyotirao Phule opened up a clinic to care for patients affected by the third pandemic of bubonicplague, that raged for a hundred years. Savitribai was personally taking people to the clinic and caring for them.
She died on 10 March 1897 because of the plague while treating a patient, and her works continue to inspire many till date.
In her honor, University of Pune was renamed Savitribai Phule University in 2014.