Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X praising Phule’s commitment to equality, justice and compassion, calling education the most powerful instrument of social change.
- Home Minister Amit Shah hailed her as a pioneer of women’s education who helped establish the country’s first girls’ school and advanced women’s empowerment.
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also paid homage, describing her life as a symbol of social change and human dignity.
- Savitribai Phule is widely regarded as India’s first female teacher, having helped open the first Indian-run school for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848 with Jyotiba Phule and reformer Sagunabai.
- Her activism expanded schooling for marginalized communities, confronted social hostility, supported widows and rape survivors, and continued until her death in 1897 after contracting plague while aiding an infected child.