Struggle for Women Emancipation and Empowerment by Savitribai Phule

 

Though Savitribai is primarily known as an educator, but she worked tirelessly to uplift and empower women and save them from sexual exploitation. She fought against misogyny and patriarchy, and became an inspiration for a whole generation of women leaders who fought for gender justice in Maharashtra— Dr Anandi Bai, Gopal Joshi, Pandita Ramabai, Tarabai Shinde, Ramabai Ranade and many others.

In 1863, Jyotirao and Savitribai also started a care center called ‘Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha,’ possibly the first ever infanticide prohibition home founded in India. It was set up so that pregnant Brahmin widows and rape victims can deliver their children in a safe and secure place thus preventing the killing of widows as well as reducing the rate of infanticide.

In the mid-1800s, there was a case of a widow who was arrested for killing her child born outside a marital relationship that she may have been forced into. Savitribai had heard of this incident and several other similar ones- widows were often sexually exploited but they were defenseless against such exploitation. They were disgraced and faced societal wrath if they got pregnant. To address this issue, Savitribai, along with Jyotiba, set up a home for the welfare of widows and their children to ensure that they were safe and not further exploited. Savitribai proved to be a caring and loving mother to the widows and their children.

Savitribai was a strong critic of the orthodox ideologies of the times. People used to take loans for marriages and festivals. She wrote an essay ‘Karz’ to discourage people against the debt trap. In the 1860s, Savitribai also organised and led a boycott by barbers against the practice of shaving the heads of widows. She fought against many Brahminical and patriarchal norms, and along with her husband, was a trailblazer in many areas. On December 25, 1873 the couple organised the wedding of a young widower with the daughter of a woman who was a close friend of Savitribai’s, without a Brahman priest. Though there was some opposition to the wedding, it was held.

Jyotiba Phule started the Satyashodhak Samaj on September 24, 1873 as a socio-spiritual movement and Savitribai actively supported it in liberating women and dalits from the influence of brahminical scriptures, and from religious and mental slavery. On Jyotiba Phule’s death on November 28, 1890, Savitribai showed the strength of her character when she lit her husband’s pyre, making it one of the rare instances when a wife lit the funeral pyre of her husband in India. Savitribai also took over Satyashodak Samaj after Phule’s death, and presided over the meeting in 1893 of the samaj, in Saswad in Maharashtra.

The Phules adopted Yashwant, the son of a Brahman widow in 1874 and again challenged caste boundaries as they often did. Together, they set up 52 boarding schools for the welfare of orphaned children, worked in famine relief, set up a night school for workers and peasants and also opened up their household water tank to the Dalits, which was strongly opposed by their own community.