NCERT Solutions Class 9, Social Science, Economics, Chapter- 2, People as Resource.
1. What do you understand by 'people as a resource'?
Solution:
'People as Resource' is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities.
2. How is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capital?
Solution:
Human resource makes use of other resources like land and physical capital to produce an output. The other resources cannot become useful on their own. This is the reason why human resource is considered to be superior to the other resources.
3. What is the role of education in human capital formation?
Solution:
Educated people find jobs in private firms while the uneducated people continue with the same work as their parents. They earn a meagre income like their parents, which is just enough to support a family. Several years of education adds to the quality of labour. This enhances their total productivity. Total productivity adds to the growth of the economy. This in turn pays an individual through salary or in some other form of his choice. It is a known fact that with investments made on education and health; one can yield a high return in the future in the form of higher earnings and greater contribution to society.
4. What is the role of health in human capital formation?
Solution:
Health plays an important role in human capital formation. A healthy person is more likely to realize his full potential and can become an asset for the economy. An unhealthy person is less likely to realize his potential and can become a liability for the economy.
5. What part does health play in the individual’s working life?
Solution:
The health of an individual helps him to realise his potential and also gives him the ability to fight illness. An unhealthy individual is a liability to his place of work. The health of a person is directly related to his efficiency. As compared to an unhealthy individual, a healthy person can work more efficiently and with greater productivity.
6. What are the various activities undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector?
Solution:
Primary sector comprises activities related to the extraction and production of natural resources. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying are the activities undertaken in this sector.
Secondary sector comprises activities related to the processing of natural resources. Manufacturing is included in this sector.
Tertiary sector comprises activities that provide support to the primary and secondary sectors through various services. Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, insurance, etc., are examples of tertiary activities.
7. What is the difference between economic activities and non-economic activities?
Solution:
Activities that add value to the national income are called economic activities. These have two parts - market activities (production for pay or profit) and non-market activities (production for self consumption).
Non-economic activities are the ones that do not add to the national income; for example, an individual performing domestic chores.
8. Why are women employed in low paid work?
Solution:
Education and skill are the major determinants of the earning of any individual in the market. Due to gender discrimination, women are generally denied the education and the necessary skills to become worthy contributors to the national income. As a result, a majority of women have meagre education and low skill formation. This is one of the reasons why they get paid less than men.
9. How will you explain the term unemployment?
Solution:
Unemployment is a situation in which people who are able and willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs.
An individual is termed as unemployed if he or she is part of the workforce of a country, and is capable and willing to work for payment, but is unable to do so.
10. What is the difference between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment?
Solution:
Disguised unemployment: When more persons are working in a job than actually required, the situation is termed as disguised unemployment. For example, if in an agricultural activity eight people are engaged but this work/activity actually requires the services of five people, then three persons are extra. If these three people out of eight are withdrawn, total production will remain unaffected.
Seasonal unemployment: Seasonal unemployment occurs when people are able to find jobs only during some months of the year. For Example, Agricultural labourers find work only during the busy seasons, i.e., sowing, harvesting, weeding and threshing. This is because of the seasonal character of agriculture in India.
11. Why is educated unemployed, a peculiar problem of India?
Solution:
Educated Unemployement is the situation wherein a number of youth with matriculation, graduation and post graduation degrees are not able to find suitable jobs. India has a huge population and every year a large number of people graduate from schools and colleges. Employment generation in various sectors is not keeping pace with the number of educated people coming out of educational institutions. Due to this, educated unemployed is a peculiar problem of India.
12. In which field do you think India can build the maximum employment opportunity?
Solution:
India can build the maximum employment opportunity in the agricultural sector and its based industries. Agriculture is the most labour absorbing sector of the economy. When the efficient and quality packaging happen with agricultural products then it can generate a lot of employement oppurtunities.
13. Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated unemployed?
Solution:
Measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated unemployed:
- Make education at the secondary level more career-oriented, which would endow individuals with not only education but also the requisite skills for gaining successful employment.
- Create a sort of screening process whereby each individual chooses subjects that suit his or her abilities.
- The introduction of newer subjects and fields of study at the school level should be accompanied by a growth of job opportunities in the sectors that would employ the students electing to study such subjects.
14. Can you imagine some village which initially had no job opportunities but later came up with many?
Solution:
- There was a village inhabited by several families. Each family produced enough to feed its members. Each family met its needs by the members making their own clothes and teaching their own children.
- One of the families decided to send one of its sons to an agriculture college. The boy got his admission in the nearby college of agriculture.
- After some time he became qualified in agro-engineering and came back to the village. He proved to be so creative that he could design an improved type of plough, which increased the yield of wheat. Thus a new job of agro-engineer was created and filled in the village. Inspired by this success all the families after some time held a meeting in the village.
- They all wanted to have a better future for their children too. They requested to Panchayat to open a school in the village. The Panchayat with the help of govt. opened a school. A teacher was recruited from a nearby town.
- After some time one of the families gave training to his daughter in tailoring. She started stitching clothes for all the families at the village. Overtime, this village, which formally had no job opportunities in the beginning, had many opportunities like teacher, tailor, agro-engineer and many more.
15. Which capital would you consider the best — land, labour, physical capital and human capital? Why?
Solution:
Human capital makes use of the other resources like land, labour and physical capital to produce an output. The other resources cannot become useful on their own. Hence, human capital may well be considered the best among all the resources.
