Savitribai Phule Jayanti 2023: Facts About India’s First Woman School Teacher

By India Today Web Desk: January 3 marks the birthday of India’s first female school teacher in the 19th century, Savitribai Phule. Politicians and Ministers from the Center and various states will be paying tributes to Sabithriphai Phule today on social media. If you are an Indian schoolgirl reading this chapter in English, you owe it to her. If you are an educated Indian woman, you owe it to her.

Savitribai Phule broke traditional stereotypes at a time when women’s grievances were rarely heard in 19th-century British colonial India. Savitribai Phule and her husband Jyothirao Phule opened India’s first school for girls in Pune in 1848. Besides becoming India’s first woman teacher, Savitribai founded 17 other schools.

Here are some powerful facts about Savitribai Phule:
Phule was born on January 3, 1831 in a family of farmers in Naigaon district of Maharashtra. At the age of nine, Savitribai married 12-year-old Jyoti Rao Phule.
Savitribai Phule’s work in facilitating women’s education and eradicating discrimination against different genders and castes.
He wrote the famous poem ‘Get Education’ where he encouraged the oppressed classes to get education.
Passionate about teaching, Savitribai trained at Mrs. Farrar’s Institute in Ahmednagar and Mrs. Mitchell’s School in Pune and became the first female teacher to inspire young women of her time to pursue education.
His first collection of poems, Kavya Phule, was published in 1854 emphasizing the importance of English and education.
Phule died of bubonic plague in Pune at the age of 66. However, his legacy continues to inspire us.