PEOPLE AS RESOURCE
Q.1.What do you understand by ‘people as a resource’?
Answer: People are a resource because they use knowledge, skills, and technology to create useful things.
– The term means the working population of a country with their skills and abilities.
– It is linked to human capital (knowledge and skills of people).
– Human capital organizes land, labour, and physical capital to produce goods and services.
– Investment in education, training, and healthcare turns population into an asset, not a burden.
Q2: How is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capital?
Answer: Human resource uses land and physical capital to produce goods and services.
– Land and physical capital cannot be useful on their own.
– That’s why human resource is considered superior to other resources.
Q3: What is the role of education in human capital formation?
Answer: Human capital means the skills and knowledge of people. Education and training help in building this human capital. Educated people can use resources more efficiently and create better opportunities. It also increases productivity and earning capacity. Apart from helping individuals, education benefits the whole society by spreading awareness and promoting economic growth. In this way, education turns people into an asset for the nation.
Q4: What is the role of health in human capital formation?
Answer: Health plays a very important role in human capital formation. Even if people are educated and skilled, they cannot make full use of their abilities if they are unhealthy. An unhealthy population becomes a burden instead of an asset.
Good health improves the efficiency and productivity of people and helps them realise their full potential. Therefore, health is an essential part of human capital formation.
Q5: What part does health play in the individual’s working life?
Answer: Health plays a key role in an individual’s working life. A healthy person can realise his potential, fight illness, and work with greater efficiency and productivity. In contrast, an unhealthy person becomes a burden at the workplace and cannot perform effectively. Therefore, good health ensures better performance and longer working life.
Q6: What are the various activities undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector?
Answer: The primary sector includes activities that use natural resources directly, such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining, and quarrying.
– The secondary sector is related to the processing of natural resources, mainly manufacturing.
– The tertiary sector provides services that support both the primary and secondary sectors. These include trade,
transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, and insurance.
Q7: What is the difference between economic activities and non-economic activities?
Answer:
Economic activities are those which add value to the national income. These can be of two types: market activities,
where goods and services are produced for pay or profit, and non-market activities, where production is done for self-consumption. On the other hand, non-economic activities do not add to the national income. For example, domestic work done at home is a non-economic activity.
Q8: Why are women employed in low paid work?
Answer: Women are often employed in low paid work because they are denied equal access to education and skill training due to gender discrimination. As a result, many women have low levels of education and skills, which limits their job opportunities. In addition, social prejudices, such as the belief that women cannot do as much physical work as men, also put them at a disadvantage. These factors lead to women being paid less than men.
Q9: How will you explain the term unemployment?
Answer: Unemployment is a situation where people who are willing and able to work at the current wage rate cannot find jobs.
– A person is called unemployed if he or she is part of the workforce, ready to work for payment, but does not get
any employment.
Q10: What is the difference between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment?
Answer: Disguised unemployment is a situation where more people are employed in a job than actually required, and the extra workers do not add to productivity. For example, if a task needs only three workers but five people are working, then two of them are disguised unemployed.
Seasonal unemployment is when people have work only during certain months of the year and remain unemployed for the rest of the time. For example, agricultural workers often get work only during sowing and harvesting seasons
because of the seasonal nature of agriculture in India.
Q11: Why is educated unemployed a peculiar problem of India?
Answer: Educated unemployment is a major problem in urban India. It refers to the situation where many young people with degrees like matriculation, graduation, or post-graduation are unable to find suitable jobs. The education system often fails to provide the necessary skills, so even after many years of study, students may remain unskilled. As a result, a large number of educated youth either remain unemployed or take up jobs that do not match their qualifications. This leads to wastage of resources spent on their education and creates frustration among the youth.
Q12: In which field do you think India can build the maximum employment opportunity?
Answer: India can build maximum employment opportunities in the agriculture and allied activities (like dairy,
poultry, fisheries, and forestry).
– The manufacturing sector also has great potential to create jobs by setting up more industries.
– The service sector (like education, health, tourism, transport, IT, and banking) is fast-growing and can
absorb a large workforce.
– Focus on small-scale and cottage industries can also provide jobs in rural areas.
Q13: Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated unemployed?
Answer: Make secondary education more career-oriented by adding skill-based learning.
– Provide a screening and guidance system to help students choose subjects as per their abilities.
– Introduce new subjects and fields of study at the school level.
– Ensure that new courses are matched with job opportunities in related sectors.
Q13: Which capital would you consider the best – land, labour, physical capital and human capital? Why?
Answer: Human capital is the best among all resources.
– It makes use of land, labour, and physical capital to produce goods and services.
– Other resources cannot be used effectively without human skills and knowledge.
– Hence, human capital is considered superior to all other forms of capital.