Education Portal for Students in India

There are many things that hinder women from getting something as basic as an education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that poverty, geographical isolation, minority status, early marriage and pregnancy, gender-based violence, and traditional attitudes about the status and role of women are among the many obstacles that prevent women from fully exercising their right to participate in, complete, and benefit from education.

The result, the UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics reveals, is that there are 16 million girls in the world who will never set foot in a classroom. Why men need to play a role in women’s education Women also account for two-thirds of the 750 million adults without basic literacy, indicating that while boys in some regions of the world are equally disadvantaged, lack of access to education plagues girls more, clearly.

What’s equally evident is that to bring about concrete global changes, and bridge this gender gap in education, engaging men and boys in gender transformative programs or initiatives is of vital importance. This is primarily because women’s empowerment is not a goal that can be achieved in a vacuum.

The everyday inequality and discrimination women face is directly associated with our relations with men, especially when it comes to accessing resources and decision-making. It’s therefore quite logical that eliminating these inequalities require equal, if not more, efforts by men and boys. Now if you’re assuming this is a new-fangled idea, think again.

History is testament to the fact that enlightened men—men who see women as equal partners with unlimited potential rather than subjects or objects to control—have played a huge role in helping women find their voice, make their stand and march towards liberation. Raja Ram Mohun Roy You may know this 19th century social reformer as the leader credited for the abolition of the Sati pratha—where a widow is burned alive on the funeral pyre of her dead husband—but there’s a lot more that Raja Ram Mohun Roy accomplished during his life.

• When it comes to education reform, Roy was one of the leading Bengali intelligentsia who believed in teaching Indians Western science, literature, philosophy and medicine.
• Not only was he one of the founders of major educational institutions like Hindu College (later known as Presidency College), the City College, and numerous English Schools across colonial Calcutta, but also advocated the need for educating women.

Education Indian women was already a target set by Christian missionaries, but it was Roy who helped popularize the concept among the elite Hindus. His argument against those naysayers who believed educating women was against Hindu culture was to delve into the shastras and prove that women’s education formed a core of ancient Hindu traditions, and had led to near-mythical women scholars like Gargi and Maitreyi. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Quite like Roy, school textbooks celebrate Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar as the Indian reformer behind the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856. What many don’t know is that Vidyasagar was a social reformer who understood that a mere act of legislation cannot change the fate of women in the country, nor would it help women fight centuries of social oppression.

Educating women was, therefore, the larger, lifelong goal he tireless worked towards. As one of the leading educators of the time, Vidyasagar held power to lobby for schools for the Indian girl child, and the fact that he exercised this power to the hilt is a fact that cannot be denied. Vidyasagar organized a fund called the Nari Shiksha Bhandar, and led door-to-door campaigns asking families to allow their daughters to be enrolled in schools.

He frequently campaigned for women’s education through contemporary English and Bengali publications like the Hindu Patriot, Tattwabodhini Patrika and Somprakash. He not only opened 35 girls schools across Bengal, enrolling 1,300 girls successfully, but also helped JE Drinkwater Bethune establish the first permanent girls’ school in India, the Bethune School, in 1849. Jyotirao Phule The fact that Jyotirao Phule, and his wife, Savitribai Phule, were the pioneers of women’s education in India is well known. Phule’s lifelong drive for women’s education stemmed from his own personal experiences as a Dalit man living in 19th century India.

He realized that as long as the shudras, ati-shudras and women—all marginalized categories—were deprived of education, they would not be able to get a voice of their own, let alone develop as communities with self-respect and basic human rights. This idea was proved when Phule visited the Christian missionary school run by Cynthia Farrars in Ahmednagar (the institution where Savitribai also studied), and observed how much confidence the female students had gained.

So, in August 1848, Phule opened the first girls’ school in the house of Shri Bhide in Pune. It’s reported that on the very first day, nine girls from different social backgrounds enrolled at the school. Between 1848 and 1852, Phule and Savitribai opened 18 schools in and around Pune, all of them for girls as well as for children from Dalit families. Periyar EV Ramaswamy “Only education, self-respect and rational qualities will uplift the down-trodden,” the Dravidian social reformer EV Ramaswamy, popularly known as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, is known to have quipped once upon a time—and never have words been truer, especially for women.

You may not know much about this social reformer, but the work he did to advocate for women’s rights, especially right to education, vocation and property, is unparalleled in Indian history. Not only did he argue that ideas like chastity should not be unfairly heaped on only women, but also believed that women should have unhindered access to education, especially vocational education.

A scholar of ancient Tamil literature, Periyar used instances from these texts to prove that education is a basic women’s right. Not only did he actively campaign for women’s education, but also wanted it to be holistic with an inclusion of physical activity so that women develop physical strength as well as mental acuity. BR Ambedkar Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is popularly celebrated as the chief architect of the Indian constitution, and also as an icon for the Dalit rights movements in the country. But Ambedkar believed that women have a key role to play in the emancipation of oppressed communities, and this could be done by ensuring their own rights to property and education.

“I measure the progress of community by the degree of progress which women have achieved,” he said at the Second All-India Depressed Classes Women’s Conference held on 20 July, 1942. “I shall tell you a few things which I think you should bear in mind. Learn to be clean; keep free from all vices. Give education to your children.

Instill ambition in them. Inculcate on their minds that they are destined to be great. Remove from them all inferiority complexes.” To achieve these goals, Ambedkar advocated for women’s right to be educated along with men in the same schools and colleges, since it would ensure that both get the same quality of education.

• He believed that women’s education could help them achieve two purposes: their own empowerment, and the empowerment of others through them.
• However, Ambedkar argued against professional or vocational education as per the British education system, since it aims at creating a clerical nature of workers.

His emphasis, instead, was on secular education for social emancipation and freedom so that depressed classes can enhance their social, economic and political status.
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Who played an important role in women’s education?

British India – London Mission Bengali Girls’ School, Calcutta ( LMS, 1869, p.12) The Church Missionary Society tasted greater success in South India. The first boarding school for girls came up in Tirunelveli in 1821. By 1840 the Scottish Church Society constructed six schools with roll strength of 200 Hindu girls.

1. When it was mid-century, the missionaries in Madras had included under its banner, 8,000 girls.
2. Women’s employment and education was acknowledged in 1854 by the East Indian Company’s Programme: Wood’s Dispatch.
3. Slowly, after that, there was progress in female education, but it initially tended to be focused on the primary school level and was related to the richer sections of society.

The overall literacy rate for women increased from 0.2% in 1882 to 6% in 1947. In western India, Jyotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule became pioneers of female education when they started a school for girls in 1848 in Pune. In eastern India, apart from important contributions by eminent Indian social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune was also a pioneer in promoting women’s education in 19th-century India.

With participation of like-minded social reformers like Ramgopal Ghosh, Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee and Pandit Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, he established Calcutta’s (now Kolkata) first school for girls in 1849 called the secular Native Female School, which later came to be known as Bethune School. In 1879, Bethune College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta, was established which is the oldest women’s college in Asia.

In 1878, the University of Calcutta became one of the first Indian universities to admit female graduates to its degree programmes, before any British universities would begin to do the same. This point was later raised during the controversy surrounding the 1883 Ilbert Bill, a proposed legislation which would allow Indian judges to judge European offenders.
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Who was the first woman to get education?

9. Ireland – Isabel Marion Weir Johnston – In 1904, Isabel Marion Weir Johnston became the first woman in Ireland to attend university after being accepted into Trinity College Dublin to study English and French. Her acceptance came at a time of great resistance towards women in higher education.

• Once at university, Isabel and the 40 other women admitted within the year faced many restrictions, including not being able to attend lectures or even be on campus at all after 6pm.
• Despite this, she became an active member of the student body, founding a debating society for women and organising dances and sporting tournaments.

In 1905, Isabel left Trinity College before graduating, but later went on to become a founding member of the London branch of the DU Women graduates association. If the lives of these incredible women have inspired you to continue your education abroad, then you can explore our courses here,
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Who pushed for women’s education?

Reforms in a New Nation Some women believed that getting an education would do more to better women’s standing in society than the right to vote. Women such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright and Margaret Fuller were radical pioneers that advocated for women’s rights to the same educational opportunities as men.
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Who is the first girl to get education in India?

Savitribai Phule
Phule on a 1998 Indian stamp
Born	3 January 1831 Naigaon, Bombay Presidency, British India (present-day Maharashtra, India)
Died	10 March 1897 (aged 66) Pune, Bombay Presidency, British India (present-day Maharashtra, India)
Occupation	Social reformer
Era	1831- 1897
Organization	Satya Shodhak Samaj
Known for	Girl’s education, Women’s emancipation
Spouse	Jyotirao Phule

Savitribai Jyotirao Phule (3 January 1831 – 10 March 1897) was an Indian social reformer, educationalist, and poet from Maharashtra, Along with her husband, in Maharashtra, she played an important and vital role in improving women’s rights in India. She is considered to be the pioneer of India’s feminist movement.
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Who is the father of women’s education?

Remembering Jyotirao Phule: The Pioneer Of Girls’ Education In India Jyotirao Phule death anniversary: He died at the age of 63 on November 28, 1980. New Delhi: Jyotirao Phule is remembered as the champion of women’s education in India. He, along with his wife Savitribai Phule, opened the first school for girls in 1848.

Jyotirao Phule was born on April 11, 1827 in present-day Maharashtra. His mother Chimnabai died when he was just nine months old.Born in a Mali caste of gardeners and vegetable farmers and since his family business was that of florists, he was withdrawn from school after primary education to work in the shop. He later resumed his studies and finished his school in 1847.He was married at the age of 13 to Savitribai Phule. The couple together opened a school for girls’ education in 1848. Later they also started schools for children from Dalit castes of Mahar and Mang,The turning point in his life came when he attended a Brahmin friend’s wedding. His participation in the marriage procession was not liked by his friend’s parents and he was rebuked for doing so since he belonged to a lower caste. This incident deeply impacted him and he started working on emancipating the lower castes.In 1873, he formed Satya Shodhak Samaj with the aim of liberating bahujans and shudras (lower caste), protecting them from exploitation and atrocities and attaining them equal status in the society.

Jyotirao Phule dedicated his book Gulamgiri (slavery) to the African American movement to end slavery. He is credited with introducing the Marathi word dalit as a descriptor for those people who were outside the traditional caste system. : Remembering Jyotirao Phule: The Pioneer Of Girls’ Education In India
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Who fought for women’s in India?

In the struggle for independence, there are numerous women who did their bit for India’s freedom from British rule. These freedom fighters not only challenged imperialism and colonialism but also the social norms of the era, which severely restricted their agency.

As India celebrates 75 years of independence, let us take a look at some of the brave women who were not only freedom fighters but also social reformers. Here are a few such women: Basanti Devi (1880 – 1974) – Basanti Devi entered the freedom struggle in 1921, after the arrest of her husband Chittaranjan Das.

She participated in movements like civil disobedience movement and was a participant in the Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress in 1920. She was also one of the founding members of the Nari Karma Mandira, a centre aimed at educating women. She collected gold coins for the Tilak Swaraj Fund and briefly went to prison for selling Khadi in Kolkata.

• Her arrest resulted in nationwide outrage.
• She ran the weekly publication, Bangalar Katha, after the arrest of her husband.
• She headed the Bengal Provincial Congress as its President and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1973.
• Ashalata Sen (1894 – 1986) – Sen was born in Noakhali, modern Bangladesh.
• Her first nationalistic poem was published when she was as young as 10 years old.

She also wrote the books Uchchhvas, Utsa, Vidyut and Chhotoder Chhada, She was highly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and the non-cooperation movement. Also Read | Is this India’s 75th or 76th Independence Day? Aruna Asaf Ali (1909 – 1996) – Aruna was born to a restaurant owner.

1. She studied at Lahore’s Sacred Heart Convent, and later married a lawyer by the name of Asaf Ali, who was 23 years her senior and belonged to a different religion.
2. After she married Asaf Ali, she was rejected by much of her family.
3. It was her husband who defended Batukeshwar Dutt and Bhagat Singh in the Lahore Conspiracy case.

Aruna Ali was jailed for actively engaging in the salt satyagraha movement and remained there till 1931. She was jailed several times over the course of her lifetime. On August 9, she unfurled the Indian flag following which the British announced a reward to identify her; she had to go underground.

• She served as Delhi’s first mayor.
• In her last days, she was associated with the Communist Party of India.
• Sarojini Naidu (1879 – 1949) – Naidu wrote her first piece of work at the age of 12 titled Maher Muneer,
• She helped establish the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) with other social reformers of her age and travelled the length and breadth of the country giving speeches to invigorate women.

In 1925, she became the president of the Indian National Congress and by the 1930s, had already become a known figure recognised for fighting for the cause of freedom. She also served as the Governor of Agra and Awadh from 1947- 1949. Read | Usha Mehta: Freedom fighter at 8, aired ‘Secret Congress Radio’ at 22, became a legend Annie Besant (1847 – 1933) – Annie Besant was a British citizen who first visited India in 1893 and soon became involved in its Independence movement.

1. She established the Indian Home Rule League and later served as the president of the same.
2. She died in India in 1933.
3. Bhikaiji Cama (1861 – 1936) – She unfurled the first Indian tricolour on foreign land whilst in Germany.
4. While residing in London, she became acquainted with Dadabhai Naoroji and joined the Indian National Congress.

Fearing deportation, she moved from London to Paris and helped revolutionary activities from there. She helped publish the newspaper, Bande Mataram, copies of which were smuggled back into India. She was imprisoned for three years during the First World War.

She was finally allowed to return to India in 1935. She died after one year of returning back to her homeland. Read | Why was August 15 chosen as India’s Independence Day? Lakshmi Sahgal (1914 – 2012) – The young doctor enrolled in the INA and played a key role in convincing Subhash Chandra Bose to set up an all women regiment.

The regiment, called Rani of Jhansi Regiment, was eventually headed by Sahgal. Later, she married Colonel Prem Sahgal, who was also part of the INA, and relocated to Kanpur, where she set up her medical practice. She worked actively during the Partition riots, the anti-Sikh riots, the Bhopal gas tragedy and more.

By the 1970s, Sahgal had joined the CPI(M). She said, “My way of thinking was already communist, and I never wanted to earn a lot of money, or acquire a lot of property or wealth.” Begum Hazrat Mahal (1820 – 1879) – The Begum of Oudh ruled over the city of Nawabs. After her husband, Nawab Wajid Ali was exiled to Calcutta, the reins of the city fell into the hands of the begum.

She declared her son as the next Nawab and took charge of affairs, ruling as the regent for nearly 10 months. She is an iconic figure, remembered for her spirit and zeal, who put up a strong fight against the British during the 1857 revolt. She breathed her last in Nepal, where she spent her days after the revolt was crushed.

• Ramadevi Choudhary (1899 – 1958) – She joined the independence movement in 1921.
• Highly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, she went door to door to convince people to join the non-cooperation movement.
• She actively took part in the salt satyagraha and was imprisoned several times during her struggle for freedom.

Even after independence, she continued to work for social causes. She set up training centres for tribals, worked for famine relief, actively protested against the emergency, and much more during the course of her lifetime. Malati Choudhury (1904 – 98) – She studied at Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva Bharati and was deeply influenced by his ideas.

1. She started education programmes for adults with her husband, Nabakrushna Choudhury, and together the couple engaged in social activities.
2. They actively participated in the salt satyagraha movement.
3. Choudhury was arrested several times in her lifetimes, in 1926, 1931 and 1942.
4. After independence, she served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.

While her husband served as the Chief Minister of Orissa, she continued to pursue a lifetime of activism and social work.
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Who is the founder of girls school?

Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule were social reformers who spearheaded the movement to emancipate women. As a result of their efforts, the first girl’s school was established in Pune in 1848.
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Who was the first female teacher?

Savitribai Phule was a trailblazer in providing education for girls and for ostracized portions of society. She became the first female teacher in India (1848) and opened a school for girls with her husband, Jyotirao Phule.
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Who fought first women’s rights?

Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a young mother from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott, about 300 people—most of whom were women—attended the Seneca Falls Convention to outline a direction for the women’s rights movement.
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Who is the first woman fight?

Avani Chaturvedi
Personal details
Born	27 October 1993 (age 29) Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India
Spouse	Flt Lt Vineet Chikara
Education	Banasthali University, Rajasthan, India (B.Tech Computer Science)
Occupation	Fighter Pilot
Military service
Allegiance	India
Branch/service	Indian Air Force
Rank	Flight Lieutenant

Flight Lieutenant Avani Chaturvedi (born 27 October 1993) is an Indian pilot from Rewa district, Madhya Pradesh, She was declared as the first woman combat pilot along with two of her cohorts, Mohana Singh Jitarwal, and Bhawana Kanth, The trio was inducted into the Indian Air Force fighter squadron in June 2016.
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Who is important in women’s history?

Home Topics Women’s History

From raising families to leading armies, women such as Catherine the Great, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen Elizabeth I, Susan B. Anthony, Marie Curie and countless others have played a vital role in human civilization.
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Who worked for women’s education in the 19th century?

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was one of the key figures of India’s Renaissance in the nineteenth century who whole-heartedly worked for women’s empowerment and prosperity. He laid emphasis on education among women as that would be the key to get them out of the hardships of the social evils and malpractices.
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