NCERT Notes for Class 9 Social Science (Economics) Chapter 2 People as Resource

Chapter 2 – People as Resource is an attempt to describe people as an advantage rather than a problem for the economy. When education, training, and medical care are invested in, the population becomes human capital. Human capital refers to the store of ability and productive knowledge possessed by individuals. We have included CBSE Class 9 Economics notes for Chapter 2 to assist students in swiftly understanding ideas and extensively revising before examinations. These Economics notes for Class 9 have been carefully prepared to cover almost all of the chapter’s themes. Students that prepare from these notes will get high scores on their Class 9 Economics test.

CBSE Class 9 Social Science notes will assist students in studying the topic thoroughly and clearly.

These CBSE Class 9 Social Science notes were written by subject experts who made the study material very basic, both in terms of language and format.

Introduction

Overview

Population is an economic advantage, not a problem. When investments are made in its healthcare, training, and education, it becomes human capital. Human capital makes land and capital usable. That is why human capital is a better kind of capital than other types of capital.

The term ‘People as Resource’ refers to a country’s working population, their current productive skills and capacities. Through its abilities, this productive character of the people contributes to the development of a country’s Gross National Product (GNP).

As a result, it is sometimes referred to as ‘Human Resources’. Human capital creation occurs when an existing human resource is further developed by becoming more educated and healthier.

Investment In Human Capital

Human capital investment (by education, training, and medical care) generates a return similar to physical capital investment. For instance, more educated or more trained individuals make more money because they provide their employers with increased productivity.

Similarly, a healthy person may provide more productivity and receive a better salary. By changing the population into a productive asset, investing in universal education and health care, educating industrial and agricultural personnel on the use of modern technologies, delivering pertinent scientific research, and so forth.

Investment In Education And Health

Parents who are educated are shown to spend more heavily on their children’s education. Additionally, they are more sensitive to their children’s nutritional and hygiene requirements.

In this situation, a virtuous cycle is established. Countries such as Japan have made substantial investments in human capital because they lack enough natural resources. They import the natural resources the nation needs.

They have made significant investments in people, particularly in education and health care. Other resources, such as land and money, have been used effectively by these people. These countries have grown due to human efficiency and technological advancements.

Story Of Sakal

Sakal was a twelve-year-old child. Sheela, his mother, took care of household tasks. Buca Chaudhary, his father, worked on farms. Sakal assisted his mother with household tasks.

Additionally, he took care of his younger brother Jeetu and sister Seeru. His uncle Shyam had passed the matriculation exams but was now unemployed. Buta and Sheela enrolled Sakal co in the local school, where he earned his upper secondary diploma.

Later, his father secured a loan for Sakal to co-attend a vocational computer course. After completing the training, he obtained employment with a private corporation.

He even invented a new kind of software that aided him in increasing the firm’s revenues. His supervisor appreciated his efforts and awarded him a promotion.

Conclusions from the Given Stories

In Sakal’s instance, education enhanced the quality of his labour. This increased his overall output in terms of salary and contributed to the nation’s economic prosperity.

Economic Activities By Men And Women

Economic activities or market activities are those that contribute value to the national income.

They are divided into three categories

1. Primary sector: This category includes all actions that harvest or extract natural products from the Earth or natural resources. Agriculture, forestry, dairy farming, animal husbandry, fisheries, poultry farming, mining, and quarrying are some of these industries.
2. Secondary sector: This category includes the use of items produced from primary sector operations in the manufacture of final goods. The Secondary sector includes all industrial processes and building activities.
3. Tertiary sector: This category includes all activities that help the Primary and Secondary sectors. These include commerce, transportation, communication, sales and services, education, health, and tourism, as well as banking, insurance, and legal services.

Economic activity is divided into two components:

1. Non-market activities: These activities are not paid because they are produced for self-consumption, self-use, or other non-remunerative purposes.

For example, women doing household work and caring for children are considered non-market activities, but males working in the fields and earning money to spend on family rearing are considered market activities. Men and women in families work in different ways for historical and cultural reasons.

Market activities: These professions include pay for the individual who does the work for money or profit. Manufacturing items or providing services, particularly government services.

Education And Skill: Determinants Of Earning

Education and skill are the primary determinants of an individual’s earnings potential in the market.In comparison to males, the majority of women have less education and poor skill levels.

The majority of women labour in the primary sector, which lacks employment security, legal protection, and offers irregular and low pay.

Additionally, there is a dearth of basic services like maternity leave, childcare leave, and other forms of social security. On the other hand, women with a high level of education and ability earn the same as males. Among the organised sector jobs, education and media are the most attractive to women.

Quality Of Population

Population quality refers to the population’s total qualitative functioning, which reflects its social, economic, and cultural development and production. Education and health are the two most critical variables impacting the population’s quality of life.

Education

Education expands horizons, nurtures life values, and inspires new ambitions. It improves national income, cultural diversity, and government effectiveness. Vocational education was established to give skill-based education that results in useful skills.

Education Scenario In India: There is provision for universal primary education access, retention, and quality, with a specific focus on females. Each district has built special schools called Navodaya Vidyalaya.

Although government spending on education has grown significantly in recent years, there are still significant literacy gaps. Female literacy continues to be much lower than male literacy across India.

Males have nearly 16.6 percent more literacy than females, while cities have around 16.1 percent more literacy than rural ones. Additionally, literacy rates vary significantly by location of the nation.

For instance, Kerala has a literacy rate of around 94 percent, whereas Bihar has a literacy rate of just 62 percent.

Government Steps To Provide Education To All : The government has made several initiatives toward universal primary education. Several important stages include the following:

1. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a government effort, aims to provide primary education to all children between the ages of six and one years.
2. In 2004-05, India’s primary school system grew to about 7.68 lakh students.
3. The Mid-day Meal Scheme was developed to increase school children’s attendance and retention, as well as to increase their nutritional health.

Over the last 50 years, the number of colleges and institutes of higher learning in specialised fields has increased significantly. The 12th Five Year Plan aimed to raise enrolment in higher education among those aged 18 to 23 to 25.2 percent by 2017-18 and to 30 percent by 2020-21.

1. Distant education, as well as the fusion of traditional, non-traditional, distance, and information technology education institutions.
2. On the utilisation of information technology, increasing access and quality, adopting state-specific curricular modifications, vocationalization, and networking are all necessary.

Health

Proper healthcare enables an individual to maximise his or her potential and capacity to fight sickness. Thus, the National Health Policy of the Government intends to improve access to healthcare, family welfare, and nutritional services.

India has developed a large healthcare workforce and infrastructure during the previous 50 years.

1. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has decreased from 147 in 1951 to 37 in 2015.
2. In 2014, life expectancy grew to around 68.3 years.

Within the same time period, the crude birth rate (CBR) decreased to 20.8 and the crude death rate (CDR) decreased to 6.5.

Unemployment

Unemployment occurs when those wanting to work at the going pay are unable to find work. The workforce is composed of all individuals between the ages of 15 and 59. Children and the elderly (60 years and over) are not regarded to be jobless since they are not included in the labour force.

Nature Of Unemployment In India

In India’s situation, unemployment exists in both rural and urban regions. There is seasonal and disguised unemployment in rural regions. Urban regions have a highly educated workforce.

• Seasonal Unemployment: This occurs when individuals are unable to find work during many months of the year. Individuals who live in rural areas.
• Disguised Unemployment: When everyone is working, but the work needs fewer workers, unemployment is concealed. For instance, a tiny farmer’s whole family may labour on his plot, even though they are not required to.
• Educated Unemployment: Many young individuals with matriculation, graduation, and post-graduate degrees struggle to find work in urban areas. This condition results in educated joblessness.

When there is an excess of personnel in certain categories and a scarcity of people in others, a paradoxical manpower situation occurs.

Effects Of Unemployment

Unemployment has a negative impact on an economy’s overall growth. Increased unemployment is a sign of a struggling economy. Additionally, it wastes a resource that might have been productively employed.

Unemployment has the following effects on the economy:

1. Unemployment results in a waste of human capital. Individuals who may be an economic asset become a problem.
2. Unemployment increases the unemployed depend on the working population.
3. There is a general reduction in health conditions and an increase in school dropout.
4. Youth experience feelings of helplessness and despair. Individuals lack the financial means to maintain their families.
5. The inability of educated individuals who are happy to work to obtain gainful employment entails a significant societal waste.
6. Unemployment has a tendency to increase economic overactivity.

Labour Absorbing Sectors Of Economy 

Agriculture is the sector of the economy that consumes the greatest labour, although employment in this industry has fallen due to disguised unemployment. The excess labour force has moved to the secondary and tertiary industries.

Small-scale manufacturing employs the majority of workers in the Secondary sector. In the Tertiary sector, new job prospects are growing in information technology, biotechnology, call centres, and other service sectors.

NCERT questions & answers from People as Resource

What do you understand by ‘people as a resource’?

Answer: The term “people as a resource” refers to a country’s working population in terms of their current productive abilities and talents.

How is human resources different from other resources like land and physical capital?

Answer: In one respect, human capital outperforms other resources such as land and physical capital: human capital can make use of land and physical capital. Land and physical capital cannot become useful on their own.

What is the role of education in human capital formation?

Answer :

The following is the role of education in the building of human capital:

1. Individuals with a higher level of education earn more than those who are illiterate.
2. A well-educated population benefits the economy of a country.
3. As a result, productivity is increased.
4. It reintroduces a person to new possibilities.
5. It instils aspirations and instils values in life.
6. It contributes to the development of society.
7. It increases national income, cultural diversity, and the effectiveness of governance.

What is the role of health in human capital formation?

Answer: A person’s health enables him to maximise his potential and fight disease. A sick person becomes a liability for a business.

Health is the fundamental upon which one’s well-being is built. Since then, the country’s primary objective has been to improve the population’s health.

Additionally, our national strategy aims to expand access to healthcare, family assistance, and nutritional services, with a particular emphasis on the poorest members of society.

What part does health play in the individual’s working life?

Answer: Health is critical in one’s professional life because no employer wants to hire employees who may perform less efficiently than healthy workers due to illness, and individuals who are physically or psychologically ill are unable to work.

What are the various activities undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector?

Answer: 

The following are some of the activities carried out in these sectors:

• Primary sector: agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, forestry, and mining.

• Secondary sector: construction and manufacturing.

Tertiary sector: Insurance, banking, trade, communication, transportation, education, and health care are all examples of tourism-related services.

What is the difference between economic activities and non-economic activities?

Answers :

Why are women employed in low-paid work?

Answer:  Education and skill are the two primary determinants of a person’s earning potential in the market. Women work in jobs that are insecure. There are few activities that are directly related to legal protection. The majority of women are illiterate and lack basic skills. All of these factors contribute to their income being inconsistent and low. As a result, they earn less money than men.

How will you explain the term unemployment?

Answer:  Unemployment is a term that refers to a situation in which a group of people who are willing and capable of working are unable to find suitable jobs.

What is the difference between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment?

Answer: Individuals who are disguised as unemployed appear to be employed.

Seasonal unemployment occurs when individuals are unable to find work during certain months of the year.

They live on an agricultural plot.

This is more prevalent among members of the family who work in agriculture. This is a frequent stumbling block for those who rely on agriculture. Five people are required to assist with the work, but it requires the participation of eight.

Sowing, harvesting, weeding, and threshing are all activities that take place during particular busy seasons.

There are three additional individuals. Additionally, these three individuals share a plot with five others. The contributions of the three additional individuals are not included in the five individual contributions.

The field’s productivity will not be harmed by the elimination of three individuals. Five personnel are required for the field, with three additional personnel working undercover.

Those who rely on agriculture often find themselves unemployed during certain months.

Why is educated unemployed a peculiar problem in India?

Answer : Due to their inability to find work, educated unemployed people in India present a unique challenge.

This is a situation in which graduate and postgraduate unemployment has increased more rapidly than matriculate unemployment.

There is a paradoxical situation in which certain categories of manpower are in surplus while others are in scarcity.

On the one hand, unemployment exists among technically qualified individuals, while on the other hand, certain technical abilities are necessary for economic progress. As a result, it is a problem that is unique to India.

In which field, do you think, India can build maximum employment opportunities?

Answer :  Because the primary sector already has hidden unemployment, there is no more room for growth. Small-scale manufacturing is the secondary sector’s most labor-intensive sector. Numerous new services, such as biotechnology and information technology, are emerging in the tertiary sector, creating opportunities for job growth.

Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of educated unemployed?

Answer:  Sriperambathur, Nanganneri, Koodangulam, and other villages previously lacked employment opportunities but now do..

Can you imagine some village which initially had no job opportunities but later came up with many?

Answer: Initially, Rampur was a village reliant on agriculture and rainfall. When electricity became available, people began to use it to irrigate their farms and grow two to three crops per year to supplement their income. Certain individuals established small-scale businesses based on the use of electricity to create jobs. A school was constructed to enable residents to obtain an education and find work both within and outside of the hamlet. The settlement prospered, with rapid improvements in health, education, transportation, and job opportunities.

Which capital would you consider the best—land, labour, physical capital, and human capital? Why?

Answer :  Human capital is the best capital because it can be used in conjunction with land, labour, and physical capital. The other variables will be ineffective if left to their own devices. A person’s knowledge and competence enable him to develop land, labour, and physical capital in order to produce an output for personal consumption or market sale.