Pune: An Apostolic Carmel nun based in Pune has been conferred a prestigious award named after a 19th century social reformer for educating girl children. Sr. Marisa, principal of Mount Carmel Convent School, Lullanagar, Pune, received the Kranti Jyoti (light of revolution) Savitribai Phule Award at a function on August 19 in Pune, the cultural capital of Maharashtra state in western India. The award, reserved only for women achievers, comprises a citation, memento, and a book in Marathi on the life of Savitribai Phule, who championed girl children’s emancipation. The Catholic nun was selected for her commendable work in empowering the girl child through education, said a press note from Tejaswini Sanstha (lustrous foundation), that set up the award in honor of Savitribai Phule. It hailed Sr.
Marisa as someone who always followed the example of Venerable Mother Veronica, founder of the Apostolic Carmel congregation and Savitibai Phule, both women who worked for women’s liberation. Savitribai Phule, a Marathi poet who died on March 10, 1897 at the age of 66, played an important role in improving women’s rights in India during British rule. She and her husband Jyotirao Phule founded the first women’s school at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848. She also worked to abolish discrimination and unfair treatment of people based on caste and gender. Savitribai was nine years old when she married Jyotirao Phule, who was only three years older than her, in 1840. The couple had no children and they adopted Yashavantrao, son of a widowed Brahmin. Savitribai, who hailed from a farmer’s family in Naigaon, worked as both an educational reformer and social reformer, especially for women. During the 19th century, arranged marriages were the norm in the Hindu society. Since mortality rates were high, these girls often became widows even before attaining maturity. Due to social and cultural practices of the times, prospects for these young girls were poor. Customarily, the heads of the widows were clean shaven, to make them unattractive. Savitribai and Jyotirao were moved by the plight of these girls. They organized a strike against the barbers to persuade them to stop shaving the heads of widows. These women became easy prey for sexual exploitation, including rape, often by male members of the extended family. Widows who became pregnant would resort to suicide or killing the newborn for fear of being ostracized by society. Once, Jyotirao stopped a pregnant woman from committing suicide, promising her to give her child his name after it was born. Savitribai accepted the woman in her house and helped her deliver the child. Savitribai and Jyotirao later adopted this child, who grew up to become a doctor. The couple established a center for caring for pregnant rape victims and delivering their children. The care center was called “Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha” (Infanticide prohibition house). Savitri ran the home and considered all the children born in the home her own. The Phule couple opened a well in their house in 1868 when they observed the upper caste were refusing the untouchable caste people from drawing drinking water from the village well. Tiffany Wayne, an award winning photographer, described Savitribai Phule as “one of the first-generation modern Indian feminists, and an important contributor to world feminism in general, as she was both addressing and challenging not simply the question of gender in isolation but also issues related to caste and casteist patriarchy.” She died from bubonic plague that she contracted while treating people affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic that hit Pune area in 1897. She and her son, who was a doctor, had set up a clinic at the outskirts of the city that was free from infection. The Maharashtra government has instituted an award in her name to recognize women social reformers. In 2014, the University of Pune was renamed as Savitribai Phule Pune University in her honour.