KARIMNAGAR, JANUARY 03, 2026: Volunteers of National Service Scheme (NSS)-IV unit of University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Satavahana University, located on the shores of LMD reservoir in Karimnagar town, celebrated the birth anniversary of social reformer Savitribhai Phule on Saturday.
Principal K Srisailam, NSS Programme Officer K Sunitha, HoD GL Archana and other teaching and non-teaching staff, along with NSS volunteers, participated in the programme and paid tributes to Savitribhai Phule.
On this occasion, the speakers said Savitribhai was born on January 3, 1831, at Naigaon in Satara district of Maharashtra state and she married Jyotirao Phule at the age of nine, and moved to Pune with him.
Her husband, fired by modern ideas and a reformist zeal, taught her to read and write. Savitribai took a teacher’s training course and became a qualified teacher in 1847. The couple then started a school for girls in Bhidewada in Pune city in 1848, and she became its first teacher.
The couple had to face tremendous harassment from conservative elements who found the idea of women’s education repugnant. They faced ostracism; it is said that Savitribai carried a spare saree with her because people sometimes threw stones and dung at her as she walked to the school. In 2015, Pune University was renamed as ‘Savitribai Phule Pune University’, they stated.
They also reminded that the Telangana government was celebrating the Women Teachers Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Savitribhai Phule.
