Extra Questions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 2 People as Resource
Class 9 Social Science Economics Chapter 2 People as Resource extra questions and answers available here in PDF format. Solving class 9 extra questions help students to revise the Chapter most competently. We prepared these questions with PDF as per the latest NCERT book and CBSE syllabus. Practising these questions before the exam will ensure excellent marks in the exam.
Class 9 Economics Chapter 2 Extra Questions and Answers
Very Short Answer Questions
1. For better economic growth, which investments in human resources should be done, either in modern technology, in healthcare and education, in food and drink or in transportation?
Answer: Only healthcare and education relate completely to human resources and so investment in this should be done for better economic growth.
2. Construction is an activity of which sector?
Answer: Construction is an activity of the Secondary sector.
3. Sprinkling crops with insecticide is an activity of which sector?
Answer: Since, this is an activity which is a part of agriculture, it is an activity of the Primary sector.
4. Navodaya Vidyalayas have been started for which kind of school children?
Answer: Navodaya Vidyalayas have been started for talented school children residing in rural areas.
5. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is meant to provide what kind of education?
Answer: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is meant to provide elementary education (up to class VIII) to children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.
6. What is the age group of population which is treated as the workforce?
Answer: The workforce population in India includes people from the age of 15 to 59 years. In other countries, this may be slightly different. For instance, it is 16 to 65 years in USA.
7. Unemployment wastes what resources?
Answer: Unemployment refers to human beings and thus it washes human resources,
8. In which category of activity will you place a social worker educating poor children for free?
Answer: Since, the social worker is not earning any money, his activity will be classified as a non-market activity.
9. Is it correct that disguised unemployment is very common in urban areas?
Answer: No, it is incorrect, as disguised unemployment is very common in rural areas, particularly in agriculture.
10. When we refer to a woman as a ‘resource’, we are referring to which of her skills?
Answer: When a person is referred to as a resource, it refers to that person’s productive skills and abilities.
11. Begging is which category of activity?
Answer: Begging does not involve production of any goods or services and also does not add to national income. So, it is a non-economic activity.
12. In which area of India is the literacy rate the lowest?
Answer: The literacy rate in some areas of Madhya Pradesh is below 30 per cent, the lowest in India.
13. Which sector of the Indian economy absorbs the maximum labour?
Answer: Agriculture is the most labour absorbing sector of the economy.
14. Can finished goods produced by an industry be treated as fixed capital?
Answer: Finished goods will be sold and replaced by other finished goods in the future and thus cannot be treated as fixed capital,
15. How will you define the life expectancy of a new born baby?
Answer: Life expectancy is defined as the average length of life a new born baby will live.
16. What is the major reason for education having an important role in human capital formation?
Answer: Education broadens the knowledge of people and provides them training, thus having an important role in human capital formation.
17. Is it true that the literacy rate of a population is the population multiplied by 100 divided by the number of literate people?
Answer: Literacy rate of a population is the number of literate people multiplied by 100 divided by the total population. So, the definition given in the question is incorrect.
18. Is drinking tea from a tea stall in the market a non-economic activity?
Answer: No, because when we drink tea from a tea stall, we pay for the tea and thus this is an economic activity.
19. Which person out of a farm labourer, a construction worker and a miner is having seasonal employment?
Answer: Miners and construction workers normally work in all seasons. Only a farm labourer will work for some part of the year and thus is having seasonal employment.
20. What is the meaning of vocational education?
Answer: ‘Vocational education’ means ‘training for a specific vocation’ i.e. training for being employed in a particular job. It is education catering to the requirements of the economy.
21. What do you understand by the term ‘human resource’?
Answer: Human resource is the term used for people who constitute work force for an organisation or country by their existing productive skills and abilities.
22. What is human capital?
Answer: When investment is made in form of education and medical care, the quality ^f population improves and it became a great asset it is called as human capital.
23. A person is making envelops with the help of papers. In which sector should his activity be included?
Answer: If a person makes envelops with the help of paper his activities will be included in Secondary sector.
24. Which state in India has highest literacy rate?
Answer: Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India.
25. What do you understand by the term “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan”?
Answer: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a flagship programme of Government of India that aims to provide elementary education of all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.
26. What is the name of the school set in each district by the government for talented students of rural area?
Answer: Navodaya Vidyalaya.
27. Which is the most labour absorbing sector of economy?
Answer: Primary sector is the most labour absorbing sector of economy.
28. Name the two type of unemployment exist in rural India.
Answer: Two type of unemployment exist in rural India are “seasonal” and disguised unemployment.
29. Name the phenomenon of shifting of labourers from rural area to urban area in search of work.
Answer: Shifting of labourers from rural area to urban area in search of work is known as ‘migration’.
30. What is the full form of GNP?
Answer: The full form of GNP is Gross National Product.
31. What is the current literacy rate of India according to Census of 2011?
Answer: According ti Census of 2011, literacy rate of India is 74 per cent.
32. What is the role of health in human capital formation?
Answer: Non-economic activity.
33. In which field do you think India can build the maximum employment opportunity?
Answer: Economic activity.
34. Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated-unemployed?
Answer: Non-economic activity.
35. How can large population be turned in a productive asset? Explain. Or Explain the importance of people as a resource. Or What is meant by people as a resource? Explain.
Answer: (i) The percentage increase in doctors from 1951 to 2001
(ii) Percentage increase in nursing personnel is
36. “Human resources is an indispensable factor of production”. Justify.
Answer: No, the increase in the number of doctors and nurses is inadequate because the ratio of both doctors and nursing personnel is still too low for India’s population,
37. How will you explain the term unemployment?
Answer: Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the current wages cannot find jobs.
38. How does Population become human capital?
Answer: Population becomes human capital when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care.
39. What does ‘People as a Resource’ mean?
Answer: ‘People as a Resource’ is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities.
40. List three non-economic activities.
Answer: Typical non-economic activities can be looking after your children, repairing your own bicycle, a mother cooking food for her family, etc.
41. The quality of a population depends on which factors?
Answer: The quality of a population depends on literacy, skill development, life expectancy and health.
42. What do you mean by people as resource?
Answer: People as resource is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities.
43. What kind of investment can be made on a child?
Answer: Investment of education and health on a child can yield a high return in the future in the form of higher earnings and greater contribution to society.
45. Classify various activities on the basis of its economic benefit?
Answer: Various Activities have been classified into three main sectors.
(i) Primary Sector
(ii) Secondary Sector
(iii) Tertiary Sector
46. What are Primary Activities?
Answer: Primary activities include agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying.
47. Which activities are included in Secondary sector?
Answer: Manufacturing is included in the secondary sector. All the small scale and large scale industries are included in it.
48. What are Non-Market Activities?
Answer: Non-Market activities are the production for self consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary product and own account production of fixed assets
49. How is division of labours made between men and women in the family?
Answer: In India women generally look after domestic chores and men work outside to earn for the family.
50. Is women’s work an economic activity?
Answer: No, women are not paid for their service delivered in the family. The household work done by women is not recognised in the National Income.
51. What are the major determinants of earnings?
Answer: Education and skill are the major determinants of the earnings of any individual in the market.
52. What are unorganised sectors?
Answer: Employment in this sector is characterised by irregular and low income. In this sector there is absence of basic facilities like maternity leave, childcare
53. What kinds of jobs, attract women in organised sector?
Answer: Among the organised sector teaching and medicine attract women the most.
54. In which other sectors have women with high education and skill entered?
Answer: Some women have entered administrative and other services including jobs that need high levels of scientific and technological competence.
55. On what factors the quality of population depends?
Answer: The quality of population depends upon the literacy rate, health of a person indicated by life expectancy and skill formation acquired by the people of the country.
56. How can population be a liability and how can it be made an asset?
Answer: Illiterate and unhealthy population are a liability for the economy whereas literate and healthy population is an asset.
57. How does education play as an important input for human capital formation?
Answer: Education is an important input as it provides new aspirations, opens new horizons and develops values of life. Education in initial years of life bears fruits in later years in terms of good job and salary.
58. What are the benefits of vocational education at school level?
Answer: Vocational streams have been developed to equip large no. of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills.
59. Has the literacy rates of population increased since 1951?
Answer: The literacy rates have increased from 18% in 1951 to 74% in 2010-11.
60. Why literacy rate is high among the males of India?
Answer: India has a patriarchal society or male dominating society. Social stigma doesn’t allow women to be educated as they are meant for domestic chores.
61. What do you know about “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan”?
Answer: It is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years by 2010.
62. What is the aim of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan?
Answer: It is a time bound initiative of the central government, in partnership with the states, the local governments and the community for achieving the goal of universalisation of elementary education.
63. Why was mid-day meal scheme launched by the government in the schools?
Answer: Mid-day meal scheme has been implemented to encourage attendance and retention of children and improve their nutritional status.
64. What is the result of this eleventh plan?
Answer: Over the past fifty years, there has been a significant growth in the number of universities and institutions of higher learning in specialised areas.
65. What is the benefit of good health?
Answer: The health of a person helps him to realise his potential and the ability to fight illness. Health is an indispensable basis for realising one’s well being whereas an unhealthy person becomes a liability for his organisation.
66. What is the national policy of India for health?
Answer: Our national policy aims at improving the accessibility of health care, family welfare and nutritional service with a special focus on the under-privileged segment of population.
67. What is the status of ‘unemployment’?
Answer: Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work and cannot find jobs.
68. What kind of unemployment exists in rural and urban areas?
Answer: In rural areas, seasonal and disguised unemployment exist and urban areas mostly have educated unemployment.
69. When does seasonal unemployment take place?
Answer: Seasonal unemployment happens when people are not able to find jobs during some months of the year. People dependent upon agriculture usually face such kind of problem.
70. What happens in disguised unemployment?
Answer: In case of disguised unemployment people appear to be employed. The work requires the service of five people but engages eight people. Three people are extra. These three are disguisedly unemployed.
71. Who are educated unemployed?
Answer: Many youth with matriculation, graduation and post graduation degrees are not able to find jobs. They are educated unemployed.
72. What is the result of unemployment in a country?
Answer: Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resource. People who are asset for the economy turn into a liability.
73. Which capital would you consider the best-land, labours, physical capital or human capital?
Answer: Human Capital as the other factors are dependent on human capital.
Short Answer Type Questions
1. Why do educated parents invest more in their children’s education and health?
Answer: Educated parents invest more in their children’s education and health because they realise that poor education and indifferent health is detrimental to their children’s well-being and future.
2. Why are rural women employed at very low wages?
Answer: In rural areas, girls are not given a proper education or given skill training for doing jobs due to being involved in household dudes and the view that they should not go out of the home to work. Due to these factors, when they need a job, they are not able to demand as high wages as men can
3. Describe any three steps taken by government in the field of education.
Answer: (i) A child, too with investment made on his/her education can yield a higher return in future in the form of higher earning and greater contribution to society.
(ii) Educated parents realise the importance of education.
(iii) They are conscious of proper nutrition and hygiene.
4. What do you understand by ‘people as a resource’?
Answer: ‘People as a resource’ is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Because the humans contribute to GDP, they are also considered as a resource.
5. What part does health play in the individual’s working life?
Answer: Health plays an important part in the individual’s working life because
(i) An unhealthy person cannot work efficiently.
(ii) If the body is healthy then only the mind can perform well.
(iii) A healthy person is able to work harder and better, thus earning more and living a better life.
6. What are the various activities undertaken in the Primary sector, Secondary sector and Tertiary sector?
Answer: Primary Sector Activities Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming and mining. Secondary Sector Activities Manufacturing and construction. Tertiary Sector Activities Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services and insurance.
7. What is ‘human capital formation’?
Answer: When the existing ‘human resource’ is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy, we call it ‘human capital though education training and medical care formation’ that adds to the productive power of the country.
8. How can investment be made in human capital?
Answer: Investment in human capital through education training and medical care yields a return just like investment in physical capital. Higher income is earned because of higher productivity of the more educated or the better trained persons, as well as the higher productivity of healthier people.
9. How is human capital superior to other resources?
Answer: Human Capital is in one way superior to other resources like land and physical capital: human resource can make use of land and capital but otherwise land and capital cannot become useful on its own.
10. How can a large population of India be turned as an asset rather than a liability?
Answer: A large population can be turned into a productive asset by investment in human capital by spending resources on education and health for all, training of industrial and agricultural workers in the use of modern technology, and useful scientific researches etc.
11. How a vicious cycle is created by illiterate parents for their children?
Answer: A vicious cycle may be created by an illiterate or disadvantaged parents who themselves are uneducated and lack in hygiene, keep their children in a similarly disadvantaged state.
12. Why educated parents invest heavily on the education of their children?
Answer: This is so because they have realised the importance of education themselves. They are also conscious of proper nutrition and good hygiene
13. How have countries like Japan become rich and developed?
Answer: These countries have invested in people especially in the Field of education and health. These people have made efficient use of other resources like land and capital and developed efficient means of technology for development.
14. What are Tertiary Activities?
Answer: Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance etc. are included in the tertiary activities. The activities in this sector result in production of goods and services.
15. What are economic activities?
Answer: The activities which results in the production of goods and services. These activities add value to the national income. These activities are called economic activities.
16. What are Market Activities?
Answer: Economic activities are also called Market activities. Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs activity performed for pay or profit. These include production of goods or services including government service.
17. What is the strategy of eleventh plan for education and literacy?
Answer: The strategy focuses on increasing access, quality, adoption of states-specific curriculum modification, vocationalisation and networking on the use of information technology. The eleventh plan also focuses on distant education convergence of formal, non-formal, distant and IT education institutions.
18. How unemployment has detrimental impact on the overall growth of an economy?
Answer: Increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy. It also wastes the resource, which could have been gainfully employed. If people cannot be used as a resource they naturally appear as a liability to the economy.
19. Surplus labour in agriculture has moved to which jobs in secondary and tertiary sector?
Answer: In secondary sector small scale manufacturing is the most labours absorbing and in tertiary sector various new services are new appearing like biotechnology, information technology etc.
20. Explain in three points the role of health in human capital formation. Or Why has the improvement in health status of population has been the basic priority of a country? Given three reasons. Or “Health is the priority of the country”. Justify the statement giving five arguments.
Answer: (i) There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls.
(ii) There is also an establishment of pace setting of schools like Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district.
(iii) Vocational streams have been developed to equip students with occupation related knowledge and skills.
21. Explain any three demerits of unemployment. Or “Unemployment leads to a depressed economy”. Justify the statement with five arguments. Or “Increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy”. Do you agree with this statement. Support your answer by giving arguments.
Answer: (i) National health policy of government aims to improve accessibility of healthcare.
(ii) It is focused on family welfare.
(iii) It provides nutritional services with special focus on underprivileged segment of society.
(iv) Over the last five decades India has built up a vast health infrastructure thus enhanced its vast pool of man power.
22. What is the difference between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment?
Answer: Women are less educated than men because more preference is given to the boys or sons in the family for education because they are considered as the future of the family. Traditionally, the girls were expected to stay at home and look after domestic chores. So, education among girls was not encouraged. Because of the above reasons, the women are less educated than men.
23. How is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capital?
Answer: (i) Land, water, forests and minerals are resources which are essential for the growth, progress and development of human society.
(ii) However these resources become usable only when the human beings process them and develop them; otherwise they are of no use on their own. Without human beings these resources would remain unutilised. Thus, human resource is the most important resource because it helps to utilize natural resources.
24. Why is human capital the most important factor of production? Give three reasons.
Answer: Human capital is the most important factor of production for the following reasons
(i) Human capital refers to the people who possess the knowledge and enterprise to put together the other factors of production.
(ii) Investment in human capital yields a return just like investment in physical capital.
(iii) It is essential, as physical capital cannot produce goods and services on its own
25. What role does education play towards growth of society?
Answer: Investment in educating children is similar to investment in land and capital, as it results in higher earnings for them and a greater contribution to society. Educated people make better use of resources like land and capital, leading to the development of society. Even a in employment, better educated people perform better in their jobs, leading to more efficient working of the organisation where they work.
26. What do you understand by ‘people as resource’?
Answer: ‘People as resource’ includes the following factors:
(i) The people should be an asset and not a liability for the country.
(ii) They must contribute towards the betterment of the economy.
(iii) They must provide the economy with their skills and abilities so that they become a resource. Thus, people as resource means ‘human resource’.
Long Answer Type Questions
1. What are various activities which are classified into the three main sectors? Name each sector with suitable examples.
Answer: The three sectors of economic activities are
(a)Primary Sector Which harvests or extracts natural products from the Earth; it involves production of raw materials and food products. Examples, include agriculture, dairy farming, mining and quarrying.
(b) Secondary Sector Which involves manufacture of finished goods. Examples includes manufacturing and construction.
(c) Tertiary Sector All activities which support the Primary and Secondary sectors with services. Examples are transportation, banking, trade, insurance, legal services, administration and government.
2. What is the difference between economic activities and non-economic activities?
Answer: Economic Activities which result in production of .goods and services which add to the national income are called economic activities. The activities classified in the three sectors are economic activities. Non-Economic Activities Those activities which are not performed for pay or profit, e.g., parents looking after their children or a mother cooking food for her family is a non-economic activity, as it is neither performed for pay or profit and nor does it add to the national income.
3. Why does unemployment have a detrimental effect on the overall growth of an economy?
Answer: Unemployment tends to increases economic overload, i.e., the dependence of the unemployed persons on the people who are working goes up. This adversely affects the quality of life of people, as they have to live at subsistence level, which leads to poor health and even increase in school dropouts. Ultimately this has a detrimental effect on the growth of the economy if it continues, as it wastes resources who can be gainfully employed.
4. Explain why Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and literacy rate are considered
to be indicators of human resource development.
Answer: Infant Mortality Rate is a factor that can be associated with the well-being of a population. High infant mortality rates could reflect improper childcare owing to poverty, lack of education and other factors. Similarly, the literacy rate reflects the quality of a population. An illiterate and unhealthy population shows poor human development, whereas a literate and healthy population shows proper human development. Thus, infant mortality rate and literacy rate are considered to be indicators of human resource development.
5. Do you notice any difference between the two friends Vilas and Sakal? What are those?
Answer: The differences between the two friends Sakal and Vilas were:
(i) Vilas’s father died when Vilas was two years old whereas Sakal was living with his parents.
(ii) Sakal went to school, but Vilas did not go to school.
(iii) Sakal was interested in studies whereas Vilas was not interested in studies.
(iv) Sakal did a – course in computers and became employed whereas Vilas remained illiterate and was not employed.
(v) The condition of Sakal and his family became better whereas Vilas and his family lived in poverty.
6. Visit a nearby village or a slum area and write down a case study of a boy or girl of your age facing the same condition as Vilas or Sakal.
Answer: A typical case study can be written as follows. I visited my ancestral village and found some families in a similar plight to Vikas. One boy, Puran, who is 15 years old, works as a farm labourer. In fact, all his family members are farm labourers, as they are landless and uneducated. Since, there is no secondary school in the village, Puran did not study beyond class five. He does not have enough clothes and whatever clothes he is wearing are also torn and worn out with use. He and his family members are undernourished. His father has already become a patient of tuberculosis and may not live long. He feels he will forever remain a poor person.
7. Can you imagine some village which initially had no job opportunities but later came up with many?
Answer: Health plays an important role in human capital formation for the following reasons
(i) Only a healthy person can perform to his full potential.
(ii) A healthy person can do the work in a more effective manner.
(iii) A healthy person can contribute to the growth and development of the economy by doing productive work.
(iv) An unhealthy person becomes a liability for an organisation. Indeed, health is an indispensable basis for realising one’s well-being. Realising the importance of health, improvement in the health status of the population has been the priority of the government.
8. Which capital would you consider the best – land, labour, physical capital and human capital? Why?
Answer: (i) Agriculture sector in India is suffering from disguised unemployment and there is no more possibility of further employment.
(ii) Unemployed rural labour force is now migrating to the cities to work in the industrial sector, where many industries have been set-up and have the maximum capacity to provide employment.
(iii) The educated unemployed can also find jobs in the Service sector or the Tertiary sector.
9. Why is human resource considered to be the best resource? Explain. Or Why is human resource superior to any other resource? Explain with the help of three arguments.
Answer: Vocational education should be encouraged so that after education, people do not have difficulty in getting jobs because they will be better trained for work.
(i) More use of Information Technology (IT) should be made in giving education.
(ii) Education should cater to the needs of the employment markets.
(iii) More opportunities should be made available in the Tertiary sector, where more educated unemployed people can find jobs.
10. Why do educated parents invest more heavily on their children’s education? Give three reasons.
Answer: Rampur was a small village which initially depended on agriculture which was also dependent on rainfall.
(i) Then electricity reached the village and people could irrigate their fields and could grow 2 to 3 crops in a year and get work.
(ii) Some people set-up small scale industries which could be run by electricity and provided employment to people.
(iii) A school was established and now the population started to become educated and as a result, they could seek employment in and outside the village. The village became prosperous and soon had better health, education, transport and job facilities.
11. What is meant by ‘People as Resource’? Explain how is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capitals?
Answer: (i) Land, labour, physical capital and human capital are very important for the growth and development of the society and the economy.
(ii) In the absence of any of these resources we cannot hope to have much progress, so they are very important.
(iii) However, human capital is the most important capital because all other types of capital can be utilised only by humans; if humans do not develop and process other capital or resources and make them usable, they would remain underdeveloped and unutilised because on their own they are useless and no use to anybody. If we develop human capital, all others will automatically develop and lead to progress.
12. What is meant by economic activities and how are these classified? Give one example of each. Or Distinguish between market and non-market activities with three points of distinction, Or What are the two type of economic activity? State two characteristics of each.
Answer: Human resource is considered to be the best resource because
(i) It is a way of referring to country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities.
(ii) Looking at the population in form of human resource emphasises it is ability to contribute to the creation of the Gross National Product.
(iii) When existing human resource is developed by becoming more educated and healthy, we call it ‘human capital formation’ that adds to the productive power of country just like ‘physical capital formation’.
13. Mention any three features of National health policy.
Answer: ‘People as Resource’ is a way of referring to a country’s working people in term of their existing production skills and abilities. Human resource is different other resources for following reasons:
(i) Human resource is different from land and physical capital because only they can use other resources.
(ii) Only human resource is living, active and sensitive factor of production.
(iii) Only human resource can think, analyse and take decisions.
(iv) Human resources add to productive power of country whereas land and physical capital cannot be useful on their own.
14. Explain the four requirements for the production of goods and services. What are the items that come under physical capital?
Answer: The four main requirements for the production of goods and services are The first requirement is land and other natural resources.
(ii) The second is labour i.e., people who carry out the work for production.
(iii) The third is physical capital i.e., varieties of inputs that are required for production such as fixed capital (Building, equipment, machinery and tools, etc.) and working capital (cash, raw materials, etc).
(iv) The fourth requirement is human capital, which may include technology, qualified man power, etc. The items under physical capital are fixed capital and working capital.
15. What are the two types of unemployment found in rural areas? How does unemployment affect the overall growth of an economy? Explain by giving four points.
Answer: Two types of unemployment found in rural areas are
(a) Seasonal Unemployment Agriculture being a seasonal activity, most of the labour is required during sowing and harvesting. At other times the labour is unemployed.
(b) Disguised Unemployment This occurs when all the members of a family of a small farmer are working in the fields, but all may not be required. For instance, the farmer may require only five labourers for the work, but because eight are available, all are working. Actually they are working at less than full productivity. Unemployment affects the overall growth of an economy as
(i) it is a wastage of manpower resource.
(ii) it increases the economic overload.
(iii) it tends to increase the number of dependent population.
(iv) increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy.
16. Why are women employed in low paid work?
Answer: Education is one of the major determinants of the earning of an individual in the market. As a majority of the women in India have lesser education and lesser skill training than men due to traditional reasons, they are paid less than men or are employed in low paid work. Another reason is that jobs involving physical labour are entrusted to men only due to their physique; here women cannot do as much physical work as men. Women also generally have an additional responsibility of bringing up their family and children and so they cannot be as regular as men in their duties. So, they are often given non-critical and low paid duties.
17. Why is educated unemployment, a peculiar problem of India?
Answer: Educated unemployment is a peculiar problem of urban India. This is the situation wherein a number of youth with matriculation, graduation and post graduation degrees are not able to find suitable jobs. The education system is such that even after about 18 years of education, a person is practically ‘unskilled’. So, a large number of unskilled educated youth get churned out of educational institutions year after year, but only a fraction of them are able to find suitable jobs. Among the remaining, some remain unemployed while others get employed in activities that are not as per their potential, i.e., they are underemployed. In effect, it is wastage of the resources spent on educating them.
18. What are the objectives of India’s national policy on health? Suggest two ways in which the policy objectives can be met.
Answer: The objectives of the national health policy (2002) are as follow
(i) Enhancing the contribution of Private sector in providing health service for people who can afford to pay.
(ii) Giving primacy for prevention and first line curative initiative.
(iii) Emphasising rational use of drugs.
(iv) Increasing access to tried systems of traditional medicine.
Some of the policy objectives can be met through the following methods.
(a) Increasing the number of trained nurses or midwives to one per village.
(b) Making available generic medicines (instead of branded medicines) at all government dispensaries. There are many other methods for fulfilling the other policy objectives.
19. What is the mid-day meal scheme? Explain its purpose.
Answer: The Mid-day meal scheme was started to provide a cooked Mid-day meal on every school day with nutritional content of 450 calories, 12 gms proteins and other micro nutrients to all children studying in classes I to VIII in government, local body and government aided schools, etc. The basic purpose of this scheme was to improve enrollment, retention and attendance of the children in school and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among them. This encouraged poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities. An additional purpose was to provide nutritional support to children of primary classes in drought affected areas during summer vacation.
20. Distinguish between physical and human capital.
Answer: Physical capital includes the variety of inputs required at all stages of a production activity. This includes fixed capital and working capital in the form of machinery, land and building, raw materials, cash in hand, etc. In contrast, human capital is the stock of competencies, knowledge, social and personality attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labour so as to produce economic value. Here, it refers to the persons performing the economic activity like labourers, knowledge persons and others involved in the activity.
21. How is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capital?
Answer: Human resource is different in the following ways:
(i) Land and other resources are specified, fixed or limited but human resources can be nurtured through education and health.
(ii) Human resource can bring change in other resources, while other resources cannot change or affect human resource.
(iii) Human resource can make use of land and capital. Land and capital cannot become useful on its own.
22. Why is educated unemployment a peculiar problem in India?
Answer: Unemployment exists when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs. It can be explained as below: The workforce population includes people from 15 to 59 years. Therefore, if people below 15 years and above 59 years do not have a job, they cannot be called unemployed. In India, unemployment can be categorised as in rural and urban areas. Further, rural unemployment includes seasonal and disguised unemployment and urban unemployment includes educated unemployment.
23. What is the present employment scenario in the three sectors?
Answer: For many decades in India, a large population has been considered a liability rather than an asset. But a large population need not always be a liability. It can be turned into productive asset by investment in human capital. It can be done by spending resources on education and health for all, training of industrial and agricultural workers in the use of modern technology and useful scientific researches, etc.
24. What do you know about ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’?
Answer: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all children in the age group six to fourteen years by 2010. It is a time-bound initiative of the central government in partnership with the states, the local government and the community to achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary education. Bridge courses and back-to-school camps have been introduced to increase the enrollment in elementary education. Mid-day meal scheme has been introduced to encourage attendance and retain children, as well as increase their nutritional status. These types of policies of the government could add to the literate population of India and further to the economic development.
25. How does seasonal unemployment occur?
Answer: (i) It happens when people are not able to find jobs during a particular season or months of a year.
(ii) People dependent on agriculture usually face such kind of problem.
(iii) There are certain busy seasons when sowing, harvesting, weeding and threshing is done.
(iv) Certain months do not provide much work to the people dependent on agriculture.
(v) Certain industries and traders also engage workers for a particular season. When the season ends the workers are rendered unemployed, e.g., sugar industry.
26. Do you think that people appear employed in disguised unemployment?
Answer: (i) In this kind of unemployment, people appear to be employed.
(ii) This usually happens among family members who are all engaged in agricultural activities.
(iii) The work may require the service of five people but engages eight people.
(iv) If these three people are removed, the work or productivity of the field won’t be affected or decline.
(v) Since the field requires the service of only five people, the three extra people are disguised unemployed.
27. What is the impact of unemployment?
Answer: (i) Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resources.
(ii) People who are an asset for the economy turn into a liability.
(iii) There is a feeling of hopelessness and despair among the youth.
(iv) People do not have enough money to support their family. Inability of educated people who are willing to work, to find gainful employment, implies a great social waste.
(v) Unemployment tends to increase the economic overload.
(vi) When a family has to live on bare subsistence levels, there is a general decline in its health status and a rising withdrawal from the school system.
28. What is the role of education in human capital formation?
Answer: (i) Illiteracy and an unhealthy population is a liability for the economy.
(ii) Education in the later years helps reap a better job and salary.
(iii) It opens new horizons, helps develop new aspirations and also values of life.
(iv) Education also contributes towards the growth of society. It enhances the national income, cultural richness and brings efficiency in governance.
(v) There is a tremendous increase in number of colleges, universities, enrolment of students and recruitment of teachers since 1951 to 1999.
29. Why are women employed in low-paid work?
Answer: (i) A majority of women have a meagre education and low skill formation.
(ii) Hence, they are paid low as compared to men.
(iii) These women work also in the absence of job security, meagre legal protection and irregular lo income.
(iv) Women are also not provided with facilities such as maternity leave, childcare and other social security systems.
(v) Most women work where there is no job security or in an unorganized sector.
30. What was the Tenth Plan endeavour to increase the enrolment in higher education?
Answer: (i) Increase enrolment of 18 to 23 years age group from six to eleven percent by the end of the plan.
(ii) Focus on increasing access, quality, adoption of states-specific curriculum modification, vocationalisation and networking on the use of information technology.
(iii) Focus on distant education, convergence of formal, non-formal and IT education institutions.
(iv) Over the past 50 years, there has been a significant increase in the number of universities and institutions of higher learning in specialised area.
(v) The plan outlay on education, in India increased from ` 151 crore in the First Plan to 3766.90 crore in the Eleventh Plan.
31. What does unemployment mean? What types of unemployment do we have in rural areas?
Answer: Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs. In rural areas of India seasonal and disguised unemployment exists.
(i) Seasonal Unemployment It happens when people are not able to find jobs during some months of the year, may be after harvesting time. People dependent upon agriculture usually face such kind of problem. There are certain busy seasons when sowing, harvesting, weeding and threshing is done.
(ii) Disguised Unemployment: In it, people appear to be employed. They have agricultural plot where they find work. This usually happens among family members engaged in agricultural activity. The work requires the service of five people but engages eight people. Three people are extra. If those three people are removed, the productivity of the field will not decline. The field requires the service of five people and three extra are disguised unemployed.
32. What kind of unemployment exists in urban areas?
Answer: Educated Unemployment In urban areas, educated unemployment has become a common phenomenon. Many youth with matriculation, graduation and postgraduation degrees are not able to find jobs. A study showed that unemployment of graduates and postgraduates has increased faster than among matriculates. A paradoxical manpower situation is witnessed as surplus of manpower in certain categories coexist with shortage of manpower in others. There is unemployment among technically qualified persons on one hand, while there is a dearth of technical skills required for economic growth. Unemployment also exists like computer’s literacy. Sometimes, it also leads to unemployment as the number of people looking for jobs are much more than the existing jobs available.
33. How can you prove statistically that the unemployment rate is low in India?
Answer: A large number of people represented with low income and productivity are counted as employed. They appear to work throughout the year but in terms of their potential and income, it is not adequate for them. The work that they are pursuing seems forced upon them. They may, therefore, want other work of their choice. Poor people cannot afford to sit idle. They tend to engage in any activity irrespective of its earning potential. Their earnings keep th em on a bare subsistence level.
34. “The employment structure is characterised by self-employment in primary sector.” Explain.
Answer: In primary sector, the whole family contributes in the field even though everybody is not really needed. So there is disguised unemployment in agricultural sector. But the entire family also has a share in what has been produced. This concept of sharing of work in the field and the produce raised reduces the hardship of unemployment in the rural areas. But this does not reduce the poverty of the family, gradually surplus labour from every household tends to migrate from village in search of jobs.
35. Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated unemployed?
Answer: (i) Certain vocational courses can be introduced at the school level, which can easily be pursued in the higher education system also. It would make them skillful workers having complete technical knowledge.
(ii) Some educational courses can be introduced to develop skill development and entrepreneurship. Courses like management as a subject in the school level and then BBA and MBA etc. can be pursued.
(iii) Loans canbe provided to the educated workers with less interest, for starting self-employment process.
(iv) More and more industrial training institutes, vocational colleges and other institutes should be opened.
(v) Vocational courses can be restructured and reoriented according to the need of the day.
36. Describe the policy of government in the field of education.
Answer: According to National Education Policy, 1986, the government considers human resource, a positive asset which needs to be cherished, nurtured and developed. Following efforts are made for the same:
(i) Education contributes towards the growth of society. It enhances the national efficiency of governance.
(ii) There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with special emphasis on girl-education.
(iii) There is also an establishment of pace setting of schools like Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district.
(iv) Vocational streams have been developed to equip large number of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills.
(v) The plan outlay on education has increased from ` 151 crore in the first plan to 43,825 crore in the tenth Plan. Literacy rate has increased from 18% in 1951 to 65% in 2001.
37. What does ‘human capital’ stand for?
Answer: (i) Population is an asset for the economy rather than a liability.
(ii) Population becomes human capital when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care.
(iii) In fact human capital is the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in them.
38. How is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capital?
Answer: (i) Human capital is in one way superior to other resources like land and physical capital; human resource can make use of land and capital.
(ii) Land and capital cannot become useful on its own.
(iii) For many decades in India, a large population has been considered a liability rather than an asset. But a large population need not be a liability.
(iv) It can be turned into a productive asset by investment in human capital i.e. by spending resources on education and health for all, training of industrial and agricultural workers in the use of modern technology, useful scientific researches and so on.
39. Why women are paid less when they are illiterate and not skilled in comparison to educated and skilled ones?
Answer: (i) Education and skill are the major determinants of the earnings of any individual in the market.
(ii) A majority of the women have meagre education and low skill formation.
(iii) Women are paid low as compared to men. Most women work where job security is not there.
(iv) Employment in this unorganised sector is characterised by irregular and low income.
(v) In this sector, there is absence of basic facilities like maternity leave, childcare and other social security systems.
(vi) However, women with high education and skill formation are paid at par with the men.
40. What does quality of population imply?
Answer: (i) The Quality of population depends upon the literacy rate and health of a person indicated by life expectancy and skill formation acquired by the people of the country.
(ii) The quality of population ultimately decides the growth rate of the country.
(iii) Illiterate and unhealthy population is a liability for the economy, whereas literate and healthy population is an asset.
41. ‘Health is wealth’, is it true? Describe the role played by health in the individual’s working life.
Answer: (i) The health of a person helps him to realise his potential and the ability to fight illness.
(ii) An unhealthy person becomes a liability for an organization indeed.
(iii) Health is an indispensable basis for realising one’s well-being. Improvement in the health status of the population is the main priority of the country.
(iv) Our national policy too aims at improving the accessibility of health care, family welfare and nutritional service with special focus on underprivileged segment of population.