what is the role of savitri bai phule un social reformation
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Savithri bai phule was the great social and educational reformer.She also built a school for girls at maharashtra and also worked as a teacher in that school along with her husband Mahatma Jyothi ba phule.
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Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule are best known for their work amongst stree-shudra-atishudra. Like Jyotirao Phule, perhaps there is no other social activist and thinker who have been so sensitive to the problems of women in the 19th century. As is well known, Savitribai Phule got married at the age of nine and was educated to become a school teacher through the encouragement and support of her husband. It is significant that the first school started by them in 1848 was for girls from all castes, thus challenging the orthodox forces who argued against the education of women. In the beginning, the school had only two students but by the end of the year it housed 40 girls. Within the first few years, five more schools were opened. Education was seen as a way of challenging established social traditions and as the first step for challenging established social structures. Thus, through her poems, Savitribai Phule exalted girls to study and challenge brahmanical traditions.
At a second level, the writings of Jyotiba Phule challenged marital practices of his times. Intervening in the debate on the appropriate age for marriage, Jyotiba Phule demanded that boys less than 19 years and girls less than 11 years should not be allowed to get married. This would save young girls from being exploited within their marriages. At the same time, Phule also took up the cause of widow remarriage and improving the lot of widows. In his letter to the government, he pointed out that young girls got married to old men and when these men died their lives were ruined through age old customs. He therefore wanted the custom of shaving of heads of girls after widowhood to be stopped. To this end a strike of barbers was also organised in order to stop this practice. In this sense, Savitribai and Jyotirao became important advocates for bringing about policy reforms and combating age old traditions which oppressed women. It is therefore not surprising that the focus of Phule’s initiative was not only the State but also fundamental reform in the society itself. To this end, the ideas and work of Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule are once again different from mainstream dalit identity movements that largely concentrate on State as a means of bringing about social revolution
At a second level, the writings of Jyotiba Phule challenged marital practices of his times. Intervening in the debate on the appropriate age for marriage, Jyotiba Phule demanded that boys less than 19 years and girls less than 11 years should not be allowed to get married. This would save young girls from being exploited within their marriages. At the same time, Phule also took up the cause of widow remarriage and improving the lot of widows. In his letter to the government, he pointed out that young girls got married to old men and when these men died their lives were ruined through age old customs. He therefore wanted the custom of shaving of heads of girls after widowhood to be stopped. To this end a strike of barbers was also organised in order to stop this practice. In this sense, Savitribai and Jyotirao became important advocates for bringing about policy reforms and combating age old traditions which oppressed women. It is therefore not surprising that the focus of Phule’s initiative was not only the State but also fundamental reform in the society itself. To this end, the ideas and work of Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule are once again different from mainstream dalit identity movements that largely concentrate on State as a means of bringing about social revolution
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