Why this matters now
Savitribai is tested as the pioneer of women’s education in India and a key figure in the Phule reform tradition — her birth anniversary (3 January) is celebrated as Balika Diwas in Maharashtra.
India’s first woman teacher
Married to Jyotiba Phule at age nine, Savitribai was educated by her husband and trained as a teacher. In 1848, the couple opened the first school for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune; she became its head teacher — India’s first woman teacher — despite stones and dung being hurled at her on the way to class.
Work for widows and against infanticide
She co-founded the Mahila Seva Mandal (1852) for women’s rights and the “Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha” (Home for the Prevention of Infanticide) for upper-caste pregnant widows. With Jyotiba she adopted Yashwant, the son of a Brahmin widow they had sheltered, demonstrating the dignity of orphans and unwed mothers.
Plague work and legacy
After Jyotiba’s death she carried forward the Satyashodhak Samaj. During the 1897 bubonic-plague epidemic at Pune she ran a clinic with her adopted son Dr. Yashwant; she contracted plague while nursing patients and died in March 1897. Her birth anniversary, 3 January, is observed as Balika Diwas.
UPSC angle
Know Savitribai Phule — India’s first woman teacher (Bhide Wada, Pune, 1848), Mahila Seva Mandal (1852), Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha for widows, adopted Yashwant, carried Satyashodhak Samaj after Jyotiba, died nursing plague patients (Pune 1897), Balika Diwas on 3 January.
Frequently asked questions
Who was India’s first woman teacher?
Savitribai Phule — she taught at the Bhide Wada girls’ school in Pune from 1848.
What was the Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha?
A home founded by Savitribai for pregnant upper-caste widows to prevent infanticide and abandonment.
How did Savitribai Phule die?
She contracted bubonic plague while nursing patients during the 1897 Pune epidemic.
What is Balika Diwas?
Maharashtra observes 3 January — Savitribai Phule’s birth anniversary — as Balika Diwas.