Chapter 2 of NCERT Economics Class IX
People as Resource
Table of Contents
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Introduction
- Here we will understand how the population is an asset to an economy rather than a liability.
- For many decades in India, a large population has been considered a liability rather than an asset. But a large population need not be a burden for the economy. It can be turned into a productive asset by investment in human capital.
- When the country's investment is in the form of education, training, and medical care then the population is termed as human capital.
- For example, spending on education and health for all, training for industrial and agricultural works, workers in the use of modern technology, useful scientific research, and so on.
- Indeed, human capital embodies skill and productive knowledge.
- "People as a resource" refers to the existing productive skills and abilities of the country's working population.
- This productive aspect of the people emphasizes its potential to contribute to the creation of the country's Gross National Product.
- These are positive aspects of the large population. But we are only looking into the negative aspects, considering only the problems of providing the population with food, education, and access to health facilities to the population.
- When the existing "human resources" become more educated and healthier. It adds to the productive "physical capital formation" of the country.
- Investment in human capital through education, training, and health care yields returns similar to investment in physical capital.
- This can be seen directly in the form of higher incomes earned by the more educated or the better-trained persons, as well as the higher productivity of healthier people.
- Developed/rich countries like Japan invested in human resources. In fact, They did not have any natural resources but had invested in people, especially in the field of education and health.
- These people made efficient use of other resources such as land and capital. The technology developed by the people made these countries rich/developed.
Economic Activities by Men and Women :
- The various activities classified into three main sectors(primary, secondary, and tertiary).
- The primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining, and quarrying.
- Manufacturing is included in the secondary sector.
- Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance, etc. are included in the tertiary sector.
- The activities in these sectors result in the production of goods and services. These activities add value to the national income.
- These activities are called economic activities. These economic activities have two parts:
- Market activities.
- Non-market activities
- Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs i.e., activity performed for pay or profit. These include the production of goods or services, including government services.
- Non-market activities are the production for self-consumption. These can be the consumption and processing of primary products and own account production of fixed assets.
- Due to historical and cultural reasons, there is a division of labor between men and women in the family.
- Women generally look after domestic chores and men work in the fields.
- Women are not paid for the services delivered for the upbringing of the family. The household work done by women is not recognized in the National Income.
- Women are paid for their work when they enter the labor market. A majority of women have meagre education and low-skill formation.
- Women are paid low compared to men. Most women work where job security is not there. Various activities relating to legal protection are meagre.
- In this sector, there is an absence of basic facilities like maternity leave, childcare, and other social security systems.
- However, women with high education and skill formation are paid at par with men. Among the organized sector, teaching and medicine attract them the most.
- Some women have entered administrative and other services including jobs, that need high levels of scientific and technological competence.
Quality of Population :
- The quality of the population depends upon the literacy rate, and health of a person indicated by life expectancy and skill formation acquired by the people of the country.
- The quality of the population ultimately decides the growth rate of the country.
Education :
- Education contributes towards the growth of society.
- It enhances the national income, cultural richness and increases the efficiency of governance.
- There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention, and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls.
- There is also an establishment of the setting of schools like Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district.
- Vocational streams have been developed to equip a large number of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills.
- The plan outlay on education has increased from Rs 151 crore in the first plan to Rs 99,300 crore in 2020–21.
- The expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP rose from 0.64% in 1951–52 to 3.1% in 2019–20 (B.E.) and has remained stagnant at around 3% over the past few years.
- The Budgetary Estimate as stated in the Budget Documents of Union State Governments, Reserve Bank of India, the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP has declined to 2.8% in 2020–21 (B.E.).
- Literacy rates increased from 18% in 1951 to 85% in 2018.
- Literacy is not only a right, it is also needed if the citizens are to perform their duties and enjoy their rights properly.
- Literacy among males is nearly 16.1% higher than females and it is about 14.2% higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas.
- As per the 2011 census, literacy rates varied from 94% in Kerala to 62% in Bihar.
- The primary school system (I–V) has expanded to over 7,78,842, lakh in 2019–20.
- Unfortunately, this huge expansion of schools has been diluted by the poor quality of schooling and high dropout rates.
- “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan" is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all children in the age group of 6–14 years by 2010.
- It is a time-bound initiative of the Central government, in partnership with the States, the local government, and the community for achieving the goal of universalization of elementary education.
- Along with it, bridge courses and back-to-school camps have been initiated to increase enrolment in elementary education.
- Mid-day meal scheme has been implemented to encourage attendance and retention of children and improve their nutritional status.
- The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education in the age group of 18 to 23 years is 27% in 2019–20.
- There is also a focus on distance education, the convergence of formal, non-formal, distance, and IT education institutions.
Health :
- The health of a person helps him to realize his/her potential and the ability to fight illness.
- Henceforth, improvement in the health status of the population has been the priority of the country.
- National policy, too, 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 last five decades, India has built a vast health infrastructure and has also developed the manpower required in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors in government, as well as, in the private sector.
- These measures, which have been adopted, have increased the life expectancy to over 69.4 years in 2016.
- The infant mortality rate (IMR) has come down from 147 in 1951 to 36 in 2020.
- Crude birth rates have dropped to 20.0 (2018) and death rates to 6.2 (2018) within the same duration of time.
- An increase in life expectancy and improvement in childcare are useful in assessing the future progress of the country.
- There are only 542 medical colleges in the country and 313 dental colleges.
- Just four states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra, and Tamil Nadu have the maximum number of medical colleges.
Unemployment
- Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs.
- The workforce population includes people from 15 years to 59 years.
- Unemployment leads to the wastage of manpower resources. People who are an asset to the economy turn into a liability.
- Unemployment tends to increase economic overload.
- The quality of life of an individual as well as of society is adversely affected.
- When a family has to live on a bare subsistence level there is a general decline in its health status and rising withdrawal from the school system.
- Hence, unemployment has a detrimental impact on the overall growth of an economy.
- An increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy.
- In the case of India, statistically, the unemployment rate is low.
- A large number of people represented with low income and productivity are counted as employed.
- They appear to work throughout the year but in terms of their potential and income, it is not adequate for them.
- Moreover, the employment structure is characterized by self-employment in the primary sector.
- The nature of unemployment differs in rural and urban areas.
- In the case of rural areas, there is seasonal and disguised unemployment. Urban areas have mostly educated unemployment.
Seasonal 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.
- There are certain busy seasons when sowing, harvesting, weeding, and threshing are done. Certain months do not provide much work to the people dependent on agriculture.
Disguised unemployment :
- This usually happens among family members engaged in agricultural activity.
- They have agricultural plots where they find work.
- The work requires the service of five people but engages eight people.
- The field requires the service of five people and the three extra people are disguised as unemployed.
- The whole family contributes to the field even though not everybody is really needed. So there is disguised unemployment in the agriculture sector.
- This does not reduce the poverty of the family, gradually surplus labor from every household tends to migrate from the village in search of jobs.
Educated unemployment :
- In the case of urban areas educated unemployment has become a common phenomenon.
- Many youths with matriculation, graduation, and post-graduation degrees are not able to find jobs.
- A study showed that unemployment among graduates and post-graduate has increased faster than among matriculates.
- There is unemployment among technically qualified people on the one hand, while there is a dearth of technical skills required for economic growth.
Employment scenario in the three sectors :
- Agriculture is the most labour-absorbing sector of the economy.
- In recent years, there has been a decline in the dependence of the population on agriculture partly because of disguised unemployment.
- Some of the surplus labor in agriculture has moved to either the secondary or the tertiary sector.
- In the secondary sector, small-scale manufacturing is the most labour-absorbing.
- In the case of the tertiary sector, various new services are now appearing like biotechnology, information technology, and so on.
