Savitribai Phule Pioneered Women’s Education and Social Reform

Exam-focused facts from the 1 January 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

Savitribai Phule was born on January 3, 1831, in Naigaon village of Satara district in Maharashtra.
She is considered the pioneer of women’s education in modern India and opened the first school exclusively for women in Pune in 1848.
She was the wife of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and earned the title ‘krantijyoti’ or torchbearer of revolution for her role in his mission.
She opened a total of 18 schools for girls in a short span of four years, including the first school at Bhide Wada.
She established a home for the prevention of infanticide and offered shelter to widows and commercial sex workers during the drought of 1876-77.
She presided over the Satyashodhak Parishad held in Saswad near Pune in 1893.
She authored several books including her first book of poems ‘Kavyafule’ in 1854, as well as ‘Savitribaichi Gani’, ‘Subodh Ratnakar’, and ‘Bawankashi’.
She led the funeral procession and performed the last rites of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule after his death on November 28, 1890.
She passed away on March 10, 1897, after contracting the plague while providing relief and medical assistance to patients in Pune.