(Bhu-Kaushal - An Esri India and CSC Academy Initiative)

An Esri India CSR Program for women empowerment, Bhu-Kaushal is the first of its kind, massive open online course (MOOC) designed and curated exclusively for rural women to provide a better understanding of the value of adopting a geographic approach to problem-solving. Bhu-Kaushal aims to foster spatial thinking and empower women to harness the context of location through simple geospatial tools for solving pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges in their rural environs.

Launched under the umbrella of the ‘Women empowerment through promotion of education and livelihood enhancement project’, Bhu-Kaushal was initially designed by Esri India with a vision to skill 10,000 rural women in 3 years.  Hosted on “Digipaathshala,” CSC Academy’s e-Learning Management System (LMS), Bhu-Kaushal was formally launched in June 2021 in English and Hindi languages.  Trained village level entrepreneurs (VLE’s) act as coordinators of the program through their Citizen Service Centres (CSC) and support rural women to undertake this course to upskill themselves.

Bhu-Kaushal is currently available in 21 states covering 157 districts. In last one year the program has received an overwhelming response with 5000+ students certified in the very first year. With a vision to ensure that “no one is left behind”, Esri India-CSC Academy are working on expanding the programme’s reach to the entire country in the next few months.