Pune: Jyotirao Govindrao Phule famously known as Mahatma Phule is the pioneer of girls' education in India. He founded first school for girls in 1848 in Pune at the residence of Tatyasaheb Bhide.
Commonly known as Jyotiba Phule also worked towards eradicating untouchability and caste system, he also put major efforts to educate women and people from lower castes of the society.
He, along with his followers, formed the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Truth Seekers) to attain equal rights for people from lower castes.
People from all religions and castes could become a part of this association which worked for the upliftment of the oppressed classes. Phule is regarded as an important figure in the social reform movement in Maharashtra.
Jyotirao Phule was born in Poona (Now Pune) in 1827, Phule was named after God Jyotiba. He was born on the day of Jyotiba's annual fair.
In 1848, aged 21, Phule visited a girls' school in Ahmednagar run by Christian missionary Cynthia Farrar. It was also in 1848 that he read Thomas Paine's book, 'Rights of Man' and developed a keen sense of social justice.
He realized that exploited castes and women were at a disadvantage in Indian society, and also that education of these sections was vital to their emancipation. To this end and in the same year, Phule first taught reading and writing to his wife, Savitribai, and then the couple started the first indigenously run school for girls in Pune.
He also taught his sister Sagunabai Kshirsagar (his maternal aunt's daughter) to write Marathi with Savitribai. The conservative upper caste society of Pune didn't approve of his work. But many Indians and Europeans helped him generously.
According to the book, 'Education and the Disprivileged: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century India', the Phules started schools for children from the then untouchable castes such as Mahar and Mang.
