PEOPLE AS RESOURCES CLASS 9 (NCERT) NOTES

PEOPLE AS RESOURCES CLASS 9 (NCERT) NOTES

Important Keywords:

Resource : Any material which can be transformed in a way that it becomes more valuable and useful is known as a resource.

Natural Resource : A natural resource is anything in, on, or above the earth that people use to meet their needs.

Human Resources : By the term human resources, we mean the size of population of a country along with its efficiency, educational qualities, productivity, organisational abilities and farsightedness.

Skilled Worker : A skilled worker is one, who has proper training and education to work in a particular field.

Economic Activities: All those activities that give income to the people are called economic activities.

Primary Activities: These include those occupations which are closely related to man's natural environment, e.g. agriculture, hunting.

Secondary Activities : The occupations which produce finished goods by using the products of primary activities as raw materials.

Tertiary Activities : Tertiary activities consist of all service occupations.

Disguised Unemployment : It is a situation in which more people are engaged in an activity than required.

Seasonal Unemployment: It is a type of unemployment under which people are emploved during some parts of the year, and remain without work during the rest of the year owing to the seasonal nature of work.

Literate : According to the census of 2011, a person aged 7 years and above, who can read and write with understanding in any language.

Human Capital: Human capital is the stock of skilled and productive work force of a nation.

Market Activities : The activities which involve remuneration to any one who performs, i.e., activities performed for pay or profit. For example growing of cotton by a farmer.

Non-market Activities: These are activities which are performed for self consumption, for example domestic work done bu women.

Introduction

1. People as Resource is a way of referring to country's working people in terms of their existing productive skills and ability.

2. When the existing human resource is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy. We call it human capital formation that adds to the productive power of the country just like physical capital formation

3. This can seen directly in the form of higher incomes earned because of higher productivity.

People as Resources:

1. It is a way of referring to a country's working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. 

• Land, capital and natural resources, etc., form the important resources of a country because these help in further production, but all these are useless if a country does not have human resource. 

• It is the human resource which converts all the other sources into useful form.

2. Countries like China, Japan, etc., have achieved a high growth rate due to human capital.

3. A skilled and trained person generates more than uneducated and unskilled worker.

4. Human capital can make use of land and capital for further production, whereas land and capital cannot become useful on its own.

Viscous Cycle:

Children of educated parents

(1) These children get the opportunities to study in the best schools / colleges as their parents invest more heavily on their education.

(2) These children get proper nutrition, hygiene and health facilities.

(3) These children are a part of Virtuous Cycle of conditions and arrangements.

Children of uneducated parents

(1) These children don't get opportunities to get good education as their parents are reluctant to spend heavily on their education children.

(2) These children remain devoid of health, nutrition and hygiene needs.

(3) These children remain in a disadvantaged state and are a part of vicious cycle of poverty and deprivation.

Story of Sakal

1. Vilas and Sakal were friends in Semapur village. Sakal was a twelve-year-old boy, and his parents were But Chaudhary and Sheela.

2. Sakal helped his mother with domestic chores and took care of his younger siblings. His uncle Shyam was unemployed despite passing the matriculation examination.

3. Buta and Sheela encouraged Sakal to join the village school, where he completed his higher secondary examination. His father supported his education and arranged a loan for him to study a vocational course in computers.

4. Sakal excelled in his studies, completed the course with enthusiasm, and secured a job in a private firm. He designed innovative software that increased the firm's sales, leading to a promotion from his boss.

Story of Vilas:

1. Vilas, an eleven-year-old boy in Semapur village, helps his mother Geeta sell fish to support the family after his father's death. 

2. Vilas suffers from arthritis, unable to afford medical care or attend school. 

3. He assists his mother with cooking and caring for his younger brother. 

4. When Geeta falls ill, Vilas is left with no support and is forced to continue selling fish, earning a meager income.

Japan Example: 

• Countries like Japan have invested in human resource.
• Japan has invested on people, especially in the field of education and health. These people have made efficient use of other resources like land and capital.
• Efficiency and technology evolved by people have made these countries rich / developed.

Economic activities

1. Economic activities contribute to the flow of goods and services in an economy.
2. If there is an increase in productive activities that means the economy is progressing.
3. Economic activities lead to an increase in the personal income as well as the national income.

Non-economic activities

1. Non-economic activities do not contribute to the flow of goods and services in an economy.
2. Increase in non-economic activities is not an indicator of the progress of the economy.
3. Non-economic activities do not lead to an increase in the personal income and national income.

Economic Activity by Men and Women:

Primary activities: 

All the activities that are associated directly with land and water such as animal husbandry, forestry, fisheries, mining, etc., are known as primary activities. 

Primary occupations have a direct link with nature of physical environment. 

Most of the people of developing, under developing and underdeveloped countries are employed in primary occupations.

Secondary activities: 

These are those activities in which people are engaged in the manufacturing process. 

In the secondary activities primary goods are used to produce some other commodities, manually or by machines.

Example : Production of bread from wheat, a car from steel, a book from paper, etc.

Tertiary activities: 

These are those activities which provide services to the primary and secondary activities. 

These services increase efficiency of the workers of primary and the secondary sectors.

Education, health, transport, communication, banking, insurance, administration, etc., are some of the examples of tertiary activities.

Quality of Population 

More returns : Spending on human resources is similar to spending on capital goods.

An investment on human resource increases their future income.

Increase in Productivity : Investment on human resource is also important to increase their productivity. The productivity of educated and skilled worker is much more than that of an unskilled and uneducated worker.

High growth rate : Countries like Japan have invested in human resource. They did not have any natural resource. These countries are developed / rich countries.

• They import the natural resource needed in their country. 
• They have invested on people, especially in the field of education and health. 
• These people have made efficient use of other resources like land and capital. 
• Efficiency and technology evolved by people have made these countries rich / developed.

Education:

1. There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls.
2. There is also an establishment of pace setting of schools like Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district.
3. Vocational streams have been developed to equip large number of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills,
4. The plan outlay on education has increased from Rs 151 crore in the first plan to Rs 43,825 crore in the tenth plan.
5. The expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP rose from 0.64% in 1951.52 to 3.98% in 2002.03
6. The literacy rates have increased from 18% in 1951 to 65% in 2001.
7. Literacy is not only a right, it is also needed if the citizen are to perform their duties and enjoy their rights properly. However, a vast difference is noticed across different sections of population.
8. Literacy among males is nearly 50% higher than females

Literacy rates vary from

96% in some district of Kerala to a below 30% in some parts of Madhya Pradesh.

Government Efforts:

• Government has launched various schemes for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education, with a special emphasis on girls.
• There is also an establishment of pace setting of schools like the Novodaya Vidyalaya in each district.
• Vocational streams have been developed to equip large number of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills.

Srarva Siksha Abhiyan 

To strengthen the primary school system, the Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was started in 2001.

All children of 6-14 age were expected to complete eight years of schooling by 2010.

It began as a time-bound initiative or programme of the Central Government in partnership with the state, the local government and the community to achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary education.

This programme has covered the entire country with special focus on the educational needs of girls, SCs/STs and other children.

Along with it, bridge courses and back-to-school camps have been started to increase the enrolment in elementary education. 

The Midday Meal Scheme has been implemented to encourage attendence and retention of children as well as to improve their nutritional status.

Health:

The health of a person helps him to realize his potential and the ability to fight illness. 

An unhealthy person becomes a liability for an organization indeed; 

Health is an indispensable basis for realizing one's well being

There are many places in India which do not have even these basic facilities. 

Just four states like Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra have 81 out of 181 medical colleges. 

On the other hand, states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have poor health indices and few medical colleges.

Unemployment:

Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs.

In case of India we have unemployment in rural and urban areas. 

However, the nature of unemployment differs in rural and urban areas. 

In case of rural areas, there is seasonal and disguised unemployment. 

Urban areas have mostly educated unemployment.

Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resource. People who are an asset for the economy turn into a liability.

Types if Unemployment in Rural Areas:

Disguised unemployment

1. It is a type of unemployment under which people appear to be employed, but actually they are not.

2. It is mostly found in agriculture.

3. It is mainly found in rural areas.

Seasonal unemployment

1. It is a type of unemployment under which workers are employed only for a particular season.

2. It is mostly found in agro based industries.

3. It is found both in rural as well as urban areas.

Employment opportunities in three sectors:

Economic activities can be divided into primary, secondary and tertiary activities. Now let us examine these from India's employment point of view:

Primary sector: More than 60% of the population is already working in the primary sector. This sector is already facing the problem of disguised unemployment. So there is no scope for further employment. 

Secondary sector: This sector absorbs only 10 per cent of the working population.

There is much scope in this sector as new manufacturing units are being set up. This sector has the maximum capacity to absorb surplus workers of the primary sector.

Tertiary sector : The tertiary sector provides services. As the demand for new services like biotechnology, information technology etc, is increasing, this sector can absorb some working population.