Savitribai Phule was a poet, social reformer, and one of the first female educators in India. In Maharashtra, she collaborated with her husband, Jyotiba Phule, to significantly advance women's rights in India. She is credited for starting the feminist movement in India. She worked to remove gender and caste-based discrimination as well as unfair treatment of others. She and her spouse were among the first in India to educate women. In 1848, they opened their first school for girls in Pune, at Bhidewada, the home of Tatyasaheb Bhide.
The legacy of Savitribai Phule endures today, and her contributions to women's and girls' education are greatly valued.
- Phule, along with Annabhau Sathe and B. R. Ambedkar, has come to represent the underprivileged classes in particular. On their Jayanti (birthday in Marathi and other Indian languages), women in local branches of the Manavi Hakk Abhiyan (Human Rights Campaign, a Mang-Ambedkarite body) regularly plan processions.
- In 1983, Pune City Corporation erected a monument in her honor.
- India Post produced a stamp in honor of Phule on March 10, 1998.
- On January 3, Savitribai's birthday, is observed as Balika Din, or "Girl Child Day," throughout Maharashtra, particularly in schools for girls.
- In honor of her, the University of Pune changed its name to Savitribali Phule Pune University in 2015.
- The search engine Google released a Google doodle on January 3, 2017, to commemorate Savitribai Phule's 186th birthday.
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