Savitribai Phule

Savitribai Phule wanted every girl to be able to read and write. So in 1848, along with her husband Jyotirao, she opened one of India's very first schools for girls in Pune.

Many people were angry that she was teaching girls, especially girls from all castes. When she walked to school, some threw stones and mud at her.

So Savitribai carried two saris in her bag — one to wear, and one to change into after cleaning off the mud. She never turned back.

Savitribai Phule was born in 1831 in Maharashtra and, with the support of her husband Jyotirao Phule, learned to read and write at a time when most Indian girls were kept away from education. In 1848 they opened a school for girls in Bhide Wada, Pune — one of the first of its kind in India.

She became one of India's first women teachers of the modern era.

Over the next years the Phules opened many more schools, especially for girls from Dalit and lower-caste families. Savitribai also ran shelters for widows and unwed mothers, and set up a home called Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha for the babies of women who had nowhere else to go.

She wrote powerful poetry, in books like 'Kavya Phule' and 'Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar', attacking caste and patriarchy. She died in 1897 while nursing patients during a plague outbreak.

She is remembered as a fearless teacher and reformer.