Question 1:
What do you understand by ‘people as a resource’?
Answer:
People can make the best use of nature to create more resources when they have the knowledge, skill and technology to do so. This is why human beings are considered a resource. It is the abilities of human beings which help in transferring a physical material into a valuable resource.
‘People as a resource’ is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. The idea of people as a resource is linked to the concept of human capital—i.e., the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in a population. Any production of goods and services requires the presence of the four factors of production, namely land, labour, physical capital and human capital. The knowledge and enterprise provided by the human capital puts together the other three factors to produce an output. Population becomes an asset instead of a liability when investments are made in the form of education, training and medical care.
Question 2:
How is human resource different from other resources like land and physical capital?
Answer:
Human resource makes use of other resources like land and physical capital to produce an output. The other resources cannot become useful on their own. This is the reason why human resource is considered to be superior to the other resources.
Question 3:
What is the role of education in human capital formation?
Answer:
Human capital refers to the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in a population. Proper education and training enable the formation of this human capital. An educated population is an asset, a resource. In contrast to the uneducated and untrained, educated individuals make efficient use of the available resources and opportunities. Education and skill are the major determinants of the earning of any individual in the market. Education enhances the quantity and quality of individual productivity, which in turn adds to the growth of the economy. Aware of the benefits of education, educated persons help in its perpetuation. The advantages of an educated population spread to even those who themselves are not educated. Hence, educated people benefit the society as a whole. Thus, education plays the role of a catalyst in transforming a human being into a positive asset and a precious national resource.
Question 4:
What is the role of health in human capital formation?
Answer:
Human capital refers to the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in a population. This skill and productive knowledge is provided with the help of proper education and training. However, the benefits of education alone do not lead to the creation of human capital. A human population which is educated but unhealthy cannot realise its potential. An unhealthy population is a liability, and not an asset. Hence, health is an indispensable basis for realising one’s well being.
Question 5:
What part does health play in the individual’s working life?
Answer:
The health of an individual helps him to realise his potential and also gives him the ability to fight illness. An unhealthy individual is a liability to his place of work. The health of a person is directly related to his efficiency. As compared to an unhealthy individual, a healthy person can work more efficiently and with greater productivity.
Question 6:
What are the various activities undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector?
Answer:
Primary sector comprises activities related to the extraction and production of natural resources. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying are the activities undertaken in this sector.
Secondary sector comprises activities related to the processing of natural resources. Manufacturing is included in this sector.
Tertiary sector comprises activities that provide support to the primary and secondary sectors through various services. Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, insurance, etc., are examples of tertiary activities.
Question 7:
What is the difference between economic activities and non-economic activities?
Answer:
Activities that add value to the national income are called economic activities. These have two parts − market activities (production for pay or profit) and non-market activities (production for self consumption).
Non-economic activities are the ones that do not add to the national income; for example, an individual performing domestic chores.
Question 8:
Why are women employed in low paid work?
Answer:
Education and skill are the major determinants of the earning of any individual in the market. Due to gender discrimination, women are generally denied the education and the necessary skills to become worthy contributors to the national income. As a result, a majority of women have meagre education and low skill formation. This is one of the reasons why they get paid less than men. Also, the perpetuation of gender prejudices such as “a woman cannot do as much physical work as a man” put women at a disadvantage.
Question 9:
How will you explain the term unemployment?
Answer:
Unemployment is a situation in which people who are able and willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs.
An individual is termed as unemployed if he or she is part of the workforce of a country, and is capable and willing to work for payment, but is unable to do so.
Question 10:
What is the difference between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment?
Answer:
| Disguised Unemployment | Seasonal Unemployment |
| It is the situation in which an individual appears to be employed, but he does not add to the productivity. That is, the productivity would remain the same even in his absence. | It is the situation in which an individual is not able to find a job during certain months of the year. |
| Example: When a work that requires only three individuals for its completion is being done by five persons, the two additional persons are disguised unemployed. | Example: Agricultural labourers find work only during the busy seasons, i.e., sowing, harvesting, weeding and threshing. This is because of the seasonal character of agriculture in India. |
Question 11:
Why are educated unemployed a peculiar problem of India?
Answer:
If disguised unemployment characterises rural India, educated unemployment is a peculiar problem of urban India. This is the situation wherein a number of youth with matriculation, graduation and post graduation degrees are not able to find suitable jobs. The education system is such that even after about 18 years of education, a person can well be termed as unskilled. What this does is that a large number of unskilled educated youth get churned out of educational institutions year after year, but only a fraction of them are able to find suitable jobs. Among the remaining, some remain unemployed while others get employed in activities that seem inadequate as per their potential. This in turn leads to the wastage of the huge amounts of resources that had been spent on educating them.
Question 12:
In which field do you think India can build the maximum employment opportunity?
Answer:
Among the three sectors, India should look to build the maximum employment opportunities in the manufacturing and services sectors. The agricultural sector is already over-burdened by manpower that is disguised unemployed. So, it is the small scale manufacturing units and the service industry (like travel and tourism, health, education, communication, etc.) that need to be encouraged and facilitated to generate employment.
Question 13:
Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated unemployed?
Answer:
Measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of the educated unemployed:
(a) Make education at the secondary level more career-oriented, which would endow individuals with not only education but also the requisite skills for gaining successful employment.
(b) Create a sort of screening process whereby each individual chooses subjects that suit his or her abilities.
(c) The introduction of newer subjects and fields of study at the school level should be accompanied by a growth of job opportunities in the sectors that would employ the students electing to study such subjects.
Question 15:
Which capital would you consider the best—land, labour, physical capital and human capital? Why?
Answer:
Human capital makes use of the other resources like land, labour and physical capital to produce an output. The other resources cannot become useful on their own. Hence, human capital may well be considered the best among all the resources.