Who Was Savitribai Phule? Read About Her Tremendous Efforts To Better The Lives Of Child Brides.
- JWB Post
- June 7, 2016
She took a stand, defied the age-old social evils and came in as a savior of countless women who were otherwise left to suffer. Yes, I am talking about Savitribai Phule, one of the earliest feminists of India and one who made life easy for many child widows in the 19th century.
It was with her husband Jyotirao Phule that she founded the first women’s school at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848.
Married at the age of 9, Savitribai was one of the countless child brides who were married to boys barely into their teens. Most often they became widows at a very young age and had to spend the rest of their lives with a shaven head and strict restrictions that reflected the whims of a chauvinistic society.
As a result, many of the women had to commit suicide or killed their children when they got pregnant as a result of sexual exploitation. Most often close relatives and community elders were the ones to inflict the abuses and walked away scot free with the burden of their crimes on these young girls.
But Savitribai put her foot down when she organized a strike against barbers to stop this tradition of shaving the heads of girls who became widows at a young age.
She found immense support from her husband Jyotirao Phule, who himself was a social reformer and raised his voice against many prevalent social evils such as child marriages and the way women were not allowed to study.
Perhaps the culmination of their struggle was the opening of Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha, where the couple looked after pregnant rape victims and arranged for their rehabilitation to curb female infanticides.
Savitribai also opened a well at her house which catered to people from lower castes, who were discriminated by the society that most often even refused to let them drink water from the same wells.
We should be grateful that Savitribai Phule existed because if it wasn’t for her efforts, who knows we might have been living in an even more regressive world!
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