Geospatial Empowering Rural Women in India

Objective

1. Foster spatial thinking and help rural women leverage ‘The Science of Where’ in every corner of the country.

2. Hone technology skills of rural women for collective problem-solving, decision-making, and collaboration.

3. Make rural women job-ready by inculcating basic knowledge and skills in GIS.

4. Help rural women to contextualize location and understand interdependencies and interconnections better.

5. Build interest in spatial thinking, maps and GIS.

Disclaimer:

The Bhu-Kaushal, which loosely translates to Geographic Skills, is an Esri India CSR Program for women empowerment designed to impart basic to advanced learning in GIS to empower rural women with spatial skills a nd the use of GIS technologies.

With a better understanding of the value of adopting a geographic approach to problem-solving rural women can collaboratively leverage the context of location and interdependencies of various factors for solving pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges in their rural environs.

Under the umbrella of women empowerment through the promotion of education and livelihood enhancement projects, the vision of the program is to skill 10,000 rural women in 3 years.

Solution

CSC Academy’s Learning

Management System hosted the Bhu-Kaushal program in English and Hindi languages through their CSC centres. So far, the program has been launched in 21 states covering 157 districts with 5128 students getting certified in the first year of launch. The program was formally launched in 2021, with plans to skill 10,000 rural women in 3 years.

The course comprises engaging modules that help students to imbibe spatial thinking. The modules enable them to gain a basic understanding of GIS and its concepts, brush up their geographic knowledge, identify maps and their uses, and understand the basics of geospatial data and its use in their day-to-day life and in the context of digital systems. This becomes a unique opportunity for the students to acquire skills in leading mapping and analysis solutions. Additionally, they learn how to visualize the data and carry out basic data analysis.