Ramabai Ranade

At the age of thirty-eight, upon the death of Justice Ranade in 1901, she left Bombay and came to Pune and stayed at their old ancestral house near Phule Market. For one year, she led an isolated life. Finally, she came out of her self-imposed isolation to organise the first Bharat Mahila Parishad in Bombay. Ramabai lived 23 years after her husband's death – a life full of activity for social awakening, redressal of grievances and established social institutions like Seva Sadan for rehabilitation of distressed women. Ramabai made her started public service around 1878, but it was after Justice Ranade's death in 1901 that she wholly identified herself with the cause of women in India. She became a regular visitor to the Central Prison, especially the women's wing, to kindle self-esteem amongst prison inmates. She paid her visit to boys in the reformatory school, spoke to them and distributed sweets to them on festive occasions. She regularly visited patients in local hospitals, distributing fruits, flowers and books. She also went out to Gujarat and Kathiawar in 1913 to organise relief for famine-stricken people. Even in the final years of her life, she went to Alandi at the time of Ashadhi and Kartiki fairs, with volunteers from the Seva Sadan, to render help to women pilgrims visiting the shrine of Sant Dnyaneshwar.[5] In taking up this activity, she laid foundations for a new type of social service for women. At the urging of Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar and Mr. Bhajekar, Ramabai chaired the first session of India Women Conference held in Bombay in 1904.

In 1908 parsee social reformer, B. M. Malbari and Dayaram Gidumal came up with the idea of founding home for women and training Indian women to be Nurses. They then turned to Ramabai, for her guidance and help for starting a Society and thus Seva Sadan (Bombay) came into being. In 1915 the Pune Seva Sadan was registered as a society under her guidance.[6][7] The society expanded its old educational departments and also started new ones. It developed a Women's Training College, three hostels, one of them for Medical students and other for probationer nurses.

In 1924, when Ramabai died, the Pune Seva Sadan was training more than one thousand women in different departments. It was largely owing to Ramabai's initiatives, guidance and exertions that Seva Sadan found a footing and grew so rapidly in spite of prevailing prejudices. The last two outstanding contribution which she made were – the organisation of agitation for extending compulsory and pre-primary education to girls; and secondly organisation of Women's Suffrage Movement in Bombay presidency in 1921–22. The singular position, which she assumed at the end of her life deserved Mahatma Gandhi's tribute to her as quoted: "The death of Ramabai Ranade is a great national loss. She was the embodiment of all that a Hindu widow could be. She was a true friend and helpmate of her illustrious husband in his lifetime."

"After his death she chose her husband's reform activities as her life's aim. Justice Ranade was a reformer and deeply concerned about the uplifting of Indian womanhood. Ramabai put her heart and soul into Seva Sadan. She devoted her whole energy to it. The result is that Seva Sadan has become an institution with no second of its kind throughout India."

In early years of Seva sadan,most of the nursing students were widows. Once there was an occasion of the annual social gathering of Seva Sadan. One of the highlights of the function was the prize distribution ceremony. Among the prize winners was a widow. She was dressed in the traditional dress of the widows of those days, a simple dark red sari with the Pallu tightly drawn over her clean-shaven head. As the widow stepped on the stage, the student crowding the galleries started hooting and shouting. This outburst of misbehavior hurt Ramabai's feelings deeply. As she stood upon the stage towards the end of the function to give a brief thanksgiving speech, she was so provoked that she could not help chastising the student crowd with all the severity at her command: "You are college students and yet how can you be regarded as educated? How can those be considered as educated who not only do not extend sympathy to their unfortunate sisters who have fallen victims to cruel fate and merciless social customs, but find it fit to heap ridicule on them. Every one of you probably has some unfortunate widow sheltered under your roof, may be your sister, cousin or aunt or even your own mother. If you had kept this in mind you would not have misbehaved the way you did." These were sharp, stinging words striking the students like a whiplash. There was pin drop silence. It was a triumph of Ramabai's powerful and spellbinding personality. She worked relentlessly against the system of child marriage. All these efforts took shape in establishing the Seva Sadan Society in Bombay, which substituted as a home for a number of distressed women. She started Pune Seva Sadan Society in her own ancestral house. This later developed into an institution offering a number of facilities like hostels, training colleges, vocational centres, selling centres, etc. Ramabai's name became synonymous with Seva Sadan. This was her greatest contribution to the welfare of middle class women. Ramabai participated in the War Conference and spoke to the Governor on behalf of Indian women. She also fought for the cause of Indian labour in Fiji and Kenya. She even worked for women's right to franchise. Everyone adored her, but she was modest to call herself a shadow of her husband.[8]