Saved by our women

Synopsis: Article talks about various female right activists that are constantly working for the rights of weaker and under-privileged sections of the society.  

• We take up the pre-independence female right activists mentioned in the article, like Muktabai Salve, Tarabai Shinde, Savitribai Phule, Jyotiba Phule etc. 

Savitribai Phule 

• Read this 

Jyotiba Phule 

• Read this. 

Muktabai Salve 

• Mukta Salve was one of the first Dalits to openly question and criticize the discriminatory caste and gender norms of the Indian society in the 19th century.  
• She belonged to the Mang or Matang community, which was considered to be one of the lowest and ritually impure communities within the caste system.  
• She had no access to education until 1852, when Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule started their third girls’ school at Vetal Peth in Pune. These schools were open to women of all castes and communities, and it was here that Muktabai’s education began. 
• In 1855, she wrote ‘Mang Maharanchya Dukhavisatha (About the Grief of Mahar and Mangs)’ at the mere age of fourteen. 
• Muktabai also wrote an essay titled ‘About the Grief of Mahar and Mangs’. It highlighted the atrocities committed against the Mahar and Mang communities 

Tarabai Shinde 

• Born in Berar province of Buldhana, she was a women rights activist. 
• She is known for her published work, Stri Purush Tulana (“A Comparison Between Women and Men”), originally published in Marathi in 1882. It is considered to be one the country’s first modern feminist text. 
• Her father was a radical thinker himself. He’s known for his book – Hint to the educated natives 
• She was an associate of social activists Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule and was a member of their Satyashodak Samaj organisation.  
• In 1885, Jyotirao Phule wrote in defense of Tarabai’s Stri Purush Tulana in Satyashodak Samaj’s second issue of its magazine, Satsaar. 

Source: Indian Express