Background
Parvatibai Athavale was born in 1870 in Devrukh, a small town in Kokan region on the west coast of India.
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Parvatibai Athavale
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Her maiden name was Mission Krishna Joshi. Later in her life, Parvatibai went to the United States. to collect funds and donations for the widow education and upliftment, in associated with Karve. She herself became a widow early in life and had to shave off her head and stopped wearing any jewellery and took on the traditional dress of a Maharashtrian Brahmin widow, as was the tradition during those times.
After working in the Widows Home, Parvatibai realised that if a change had to come, it had to be initiated by the widows themselves and to set an example, she decided to discard the signs of widowhood.
In 1912, she stopped shaving her head and gave up her widow"s garb. She says she was criticized a lot, but she did not give in to those insults.
