People as Resource Class 9 Economics NCERT Solutions & Notes

Ans: 'People as Resource' is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Looking at the population from this productive aspect emphasizes its ability to contribute to the creation of the Gross National Product (GNP). When education, training, and healthcare are provided, the population becomes human capital.

Ans: Human resource is superior to other resources like land and physical capital because human resources can make use of land and capital. Land and capital cannot become useful on their own. It requires human intelligence, effort, and skills to turn raw materials into valuable products.

Ans: Education plays a vital role in human capital formation because it enhances the skill and knowledge of a person, making them more productive. Educated people earn higher incomes, which contributes to the growth of society. It also opens up new horizons, provides new aspirations, and develops values of life (as seen in the story of Sakal).

Ans:
Disguised Unemployment: It happens when more people are engaged in a job than actually required. For example, if a field requires 5 workers but 8 people from a family are working on it, the extra 3 people are disguisedly unemployed. Their removal won't affect the production.
Seasonal Unemployment: It happens when people are not able to find jobs during some months of the year. It is very common in agriculture because sowing, harvesting, weeding, and threshing happen only in specific seasons.

Ans: The stories show that investment in human capital (via education and medical care) can yield high returns in the future. Sakal’s parents invested in his education and health, leading him to a good job. Vilas lacked education and had poor health (arthritis), forcing him to continue his mother's low-income work of selling fish.

Ans: Educated parents realize the importance of education. They invest heavily in their children's education and ensure they have proper nutrition and hygiene. This creates a "virtuous cycle" where the next generation also becomes highly productive and repeats the process for their own children.

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1. Primary Sector: Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, mining.
2. Secondary Sector: Manufacturing and construction.
3. Tertiary Sector: Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, and health services.

Ans: A majority of women in India have meager education and low skill formation compared to men. Due to this historical lack of investment in their human capital, they are paid less. They often work in the unorganized sector where there is no job security, maternity leave, or proper legal protection.

Ans: The Mid-day Meal Scheme is a government initiative that provides free cooked meals to children in government and government-aided primary schools. Its objective is to encourage attendance and retention of children in schools while simultaneously improving their nutritional status.

Ans: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a significant step by the Government of India towards providing elementary education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. It was a time-bound initiative taken in partnership with the states to achieve the goal of universalization of elementary education.

Ans: A person's health helps them realize their potential and the ability to fight illness. An unhealthy person becomes a liability for an organization and the country. Only a healthy worker can work efficiently, maximize their earnings, and contribute positively to the national income.

Ans: Our National Health Policy aims at improving the accessibility of healthcare, family welfare, and nutritional service with a special focus on the underprivileged segment of the population. Over the years, India has built a vast health infrastructure at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

Ans: IMR is the death of a child under one year of age. A decrease in IMR is important because it is a key indicator of a country's health infrastructure, sanitation, and maternal health care. It shows that children are surviving their most vulnerable period due to better medical care.

Ans: Educated unemployment occurs when youths with matriculation, graduation, and post-graduation degrees are unable to find jobs. It is peculiar in India because while there is unemployment among technically qualified graduates, there is simultaneously a shortage of technical skills needed for economic growth in certain sectors.

Ans: Unemployment leads to a massive wastage of manpower resources. People who are an asset for the economy turn into a liability because they cannot contribute to national production. This creates a feeling of hopelessness and despair among the youth and increases the economic overload on the working population.

Ans: Japan did not have any significant natural resources. They became rich by investing heavily in their people, especially in the fields of education and health. The educated and healthy people made efficient use of other resources like land and capital. Efficiency and technology evolved by the people made Japan a developed country.

Ans: Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs an activity for pay or profit (e.g., producing goods or government services). Non-market activities are the production for self-consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary products or managing one's own household.

Ans: Disguised unemployment is mostly found in the agricultural (primary) sector in rural areas. This happens because the whole family works on the same small piece of land. Even if a few members are withdrawn, agricultural production will not decline.

Ans: Employment in agriculture can be increased by providing better irrigation facilities so farmers can grow multiple crops, providing cheap credit to buy modern farming inputs, improving rural roads and transportation, and setting up agro-based industries near rural areas to create local jobs.