Pandita Ramabai was a social worker, scholar, and fighter for women's rights, freedom, and education. She was bestowed with the title 'Pandita' for her excellent command of the Sanskrit language.
She was born on 23rd April, 1858 to Anant Shastri Dongare and Lakshmibai. After her parents died in the jungles of Karnataka, young Ramabai and her brother had to face hardship due to poverty. They had to come to a place of human habitation. They later went to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1878. She then decided to dedicate her life to the cause of distressed women.
In 1897 Ramabai went to the USA to revive her organisation Ramabai Association. After coming back she built a new building in the ‘Mukti’ complex called ‘Kripa Sadan’ for the destitute.
She married Bipin Behari Medhvi, a Bengali lawyer. Her intercaste marriage had antagonized all her relatives. They shut the doors help to her. After the death of her husband, she moved to Pune to promote female education.
Ramabai later founded the ‘Arya Mahila Samaj’ to serve the cause of women. She was also behind the movement for medical education for women.
In 1883, Ramabai went to England as a professor to teach Sanskrit and there she reportedly accepted the Christian faith. Years later, she returned to India in 1889 to establish the ‘Sharada Sadan’. After contributing to society and its women in several wats, she breathed her last on April 5, 1922.
