JAC Board Class 9th Social Science Notes Economics Chapter 2 People as Resource
→ Introduction
- Population as an asset for the economy rather than liability.
- Population becomes human capital when the investment is made in the form of education, training and medical care.
- Working population of a country, their existing productive skills and abilities are known as ‘People as Resource’.
- This productive nature of population helps to develop the Gross National Product (GNP) of a country through its abilities. So, it is also known as ‘Human Resource.
- When the existing human resource is further developed by making it more educated and healthy, we call it human capital formation.
- Investment in human capital (through eduction, training and medical care) yields a return in the same way as investment in physical capital.
- Human capital is, in one way,superior to other resources, like land and physical capital.
- In the case of Sakai, eduction added to the quality of his labour. This enhanced his total productivity in the form of salary and further added to the growth of the nation’s economy.
- In the case of Vilas, there was no education or healthcare in the early part of his life. He spent his life selling fish like his mother: hence, he earns the same amount as an unskilled labourer.
- Investment in human resources through education and medical care can give high rates of return in the future.
- Educated parents invest more heavily on the education of their child.
- Developed countries invest heavily on their people, especially in the field of education and health.
→ Economic Activities by Men and Women
- Economic activities have been classified into three sectors: (i) Primary sector, (ii) Secondary sector, (iii) Tertiary sector.
- Primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying.
- Manufacturing is included in the secondary sector.
- Trade, transport, communication, banking, health, tourism, services, insurance etc. come under tertiary sector.
- Economic activities is of two types: (i) market activities (ii) non-market activities.
- Market activities involve remuneration to the person who performs an activity for pay or profit, e.g. Production of goods or services including government services.
- Non-market activities involve production for self-consumption.
- The household work done by women is not included in the National Income.
- Education helps individuals to make better use of the economic opportunities available before them.
- Education and skill are the major determinants of the earning of any individual in the market.
- Women are paid less as compared to men.
→ Quality of population
- 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.
- Education provides new aspirations and develops higher values of life and new horizons for individuals.
- There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elemen-tary education with special emphasis on girls.
- Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Bridge courses, Back-to-school campaign, Mid-day meal scheme are such programmes which have been initiated to increase the enrolment in elementary education.
→ Health
- The health of a person helps him to realise his potential and his ability to fight illness.
- Our National Policy aims at improving the accessibility of healthcare, family welfare and nutritional service with special focus on the under-privileged segment of population.
- During the last 50 years, India has built up a vast health care manpower and infrastructure base.
→ The results are:
- Life expectancy has increased to over 68.3 years in the year 2014.
- Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has come down from 147 in the year 1951 to 34 in the year 2016.
- Crude Birth rate (CBR) has dropped to 20.4 and Crude Death Rate (CDR) to 6.4 his the same duration of time.
→ Unemployment
- Unemployment exists when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs.
- The work force includes all people from the age of 15 years to 59 years.
- In the case of India, there is unemployment in both rural and urban areas.
- In rural areas, there is seasonal and disguised unemployment; urban areas have mostly educated unemployment.
- 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,
- When all the people appear to be employed, but the work requires less number of persons, the unemployment is disguised. For example, a small farmer’s entire family is working on his plot, although all may not be required to do so.
- In urban areas, many young people with matriculation, graduation and post-graduation degrees are not able to find jobs.
- Unemployment has a harmful impact on the overall growth of an economy.
- Increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy. It also wastes the human resource ™hich could have been gainfully employed.
- In case of India, statistically, the unemployment rate is low.
- Agriculture is the most-labour absorbing sector of the economy but employment in this sector has declined because of disguised unemployment. The surplus people have moved to work in the secondary and tertiary sectors.
- Small-scale manufacturing absorbs most of the labour in the secondary sector.
- New employment opportunities are emerging in the tertiary sector in information technology
→ Resource: The collective wealth of a country or its means of producing wealth.
→ Gross National Product: The total value of goods produced and services provided by a country during one year, equal to the gross domestic product plus the net income from foreign investments.
→ Virtuous cycle: A condition in which a favourable circumstance or result gives rise to another that subsequently supports the first condition. Economic growth is one such cycle.
→ Vicious cycle: A condition in which an unfavourable circumstance or result gives rise to another that subsequently supports the first infavourable condition. A spiral of inflation is one such cycle.
→ Economic Activities: Those activities which are done for earning money are known as economic activities.
→ Non-economic Activities: Those activities which are done to meet the emotional and psychological requirements are called non-economic activities.
→ Literacy rate: This is the percentage of people above the age of 7 years with the ability to read and write with understanding.
→ National income: The national in income is the total amount of income accruing to a country from economic activities in a year’s time. It includes payments made to all resources, either in the form of wages, interest, rent and profits. The progress of a country can be determined by the growth of the national income of the country.
→ Infant Mortality Rate: Infant Mortality Rate is the number death of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births.
→ Crude Birth Rate: Crude birth rate is the number of babies bom there for every 1,000 people during a particular period of time.
→ Death Rate: Death Rate is the number of people per 1,000 who die during a particular period of time.