The historic Bhide Wada, the building where India’s first girls’ school was started by Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule in 1848, will be redeveloped as a national monument and will house a girl’s school. The work on expanding the Bhide Wada will commence soon. The seven-storey structure will have five floors reserved for the school which will have all the modern amenities. The school will be run by PMC, and the basement will house shops, which are already located there.

Professor Hari Narke, former head of the Mahatma Phule chair in Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) shared his insights on the proposed monument at the Bhide Wada. Last week, after conducting a meeting with officials, Chhagan Bhujbal, minister of food, civic supplies and customer protection announced that a school for girls will be started in Bhide Wada.1

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• 1. According to Professor Narke, the proposed school will have an appearance of the 19th century Bhide Wada and will be the centre of advanced knowledge. “We aim to have a school which will groom the opinion makers in the 21st century. Topics related to advanced technology such as artificial intelligence and programming will be incorporated. The school will prepare girls to pursue higher education from any reputed world university such as Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard,” Narke. He was also present at the meeting held by Bhujbal and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar with the officials, wherein the officials were asked to expedite the process to develop the national monument at Phulewada and memorial of Savitribai Phule.