In India, women's movements had their roots in deeply embedded ancient

customs like sati, child marriage, or the mistreatment of widows in the 19th
century, and in more recent times, issues like rape, dowry, domestic violence,
unequal pay at work, sexual harassment at work, an unequal division of labour,
and a low representation of women in politics. The middle-class social reform
movements of the early 19th century gave rise to the women's question in
contemporary India. These problems vary by area, religion, and social class.
The issues are constantly changing, and the lessons learned from dealing with
earlier issues remain ingrained. The demands made in this campaign for equal
access to education and the vote served as the foundation for later women's
movements. The problems with imbalanced power hierarchies in institutions
like the law, marriage, and the workplace resulted from education and
awareness. The ongoing women's movements consider the various aspects of
patriarchy exposed due to social changes brought on by technological growth
and globalization. However, many of the reformers were the majority of men,
and the reform movement aimed at improving the status of Indian women.
Western-educated people realized and identified superstitions and socially evil
practices among traditional Indian communities about spreading education, i.e.,
education was restricted to the upper caste communities like Brahmins,
Kshatriyas and Vaishyas due to their social status and engagement in certain
occupations such as village record keeping, village court, etc. The lower caste
Sudras were not allowed to enter the orbit of the education system. Some
reformers who advocated for women's education were Raja Ram Mohan Roy in
Calcutta and jyotiba Phule in Pune. Phule established a special school for
women to educate not only urban women but also rural unreached.
Vidya Sagar founded 48 girls' schools between 1855 and 1858 while serving as
an inspector of schools. In 1884, M. G. Ranado and his wife established a girls'
high school to promote female education. D. K. Karve recognized the limited
application and viability of laws like the widow remarriage act of 1856 and
others in a society firmly rooted in custom. As a result, he focused his efforts on
increasing education among widows. The Ananth Balikashram was established
in 1896 by Karve and 15 of his coworkers to educate widows. Hindu widows,
who had no other claim to their husband's property except the entitlement to
maintenance, were harshly treated under the prevailing custom. Raja Ram
Mohan Roy advocated for the government to establish and implement laws to
eliminate these limitations and promote economic independence and self-
reliance. These efforts resulted from the Special Marriage Act of 1872, which
included divorce provisions and property inheritance to women. Attempts to
remove barriers from women's lives began with the social reform movement.
Due to this, people became aware that women must be freed and treated equally
to men.
ARYA SAMAJ
Swami Dayananda Saraswati founded it on 10th April 1875 in Bombay. As one
of the makers of modern India, he expressed the need to modify indigenous
orientation and realized the importance of new social, religious and economic
orders.He developed Arya Samaj with the principles of Veda as the ultimate
source of truth. Opposition to dowry, caste system, idol worship, child marriage,
polygamy and believe in female education was the various areas of work of
Arya Samaj. He emphasized that both boys and girls must attend school. The
first coordinated initiative of the Samaj to support women's education
methodically was a set of schools for women called Arya Kanya Patasalas.
BRAHMO SAMAJ
It was established on 20th of August 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and
Debendranath Tagore at Calcutta. It was the most important reform movement
of bengal. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a liberal who refused to believe Veda was
the only source of true religion. He established Brahma Samaj in 1828 in
Calcutta. He was one of the pioneer social reformers who was deeply influenced
by western ideas and advocated for removing evil practices or superstitions in
Indian society.
SATYASODHAK SAMAJ
Their stress on women's education was a part of their caste-based politics to
uplift the oppressed castes from doom and give them a respectable life
their activities awakened the shudra girls' lives, many of whom began to get
educated and come out in public life more visibly than before.
CONCLUSION
The society of the 19th century in India tried to improve the position of women
through the developmental approach towards education, labour participation,
and social participation. Social reform movements in India and all the social
reformers had significantly contributed significantly to the cause of women.