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Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource

People As Resources
Human Resources:
People who are part of the workforce are called human resource. By
contributing in productivity, the human resource plays a significant role
in the economy of a country. Any other resource becomes useful only
because of the input by the human resource.
Investment in human capital yields a return
like investment in other resources. Investment
in human capital is done through education,
training and healthcare. A person with better
education usually earns better than an
uneducated person. Moreover, a healthy person
is more productive than an unhealthy person.
Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource
Human Resources:
Educated parents understand the value of
education and hence invest in their child’s
education to secure a better future for the child.
Educated parents also take extra care of the health
and nutrition of their child. This creates a virtuous
cycle of creating a better human capital.
Uneducated parents are unable to invest on
education and healthcare of their children. This
creates a vicious cycle in which the coming
generation is often forced to remain poor.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Economic Activities
Economic activities can be categorized into three
types, viz. primary, secondary and tertiary
activities.
Primary Activities: Economic activities which are
related to agriculture, poultry farming, fishing,
horticulture, animal husbandry, mining, quarrying,
etc. are called primary activities. Natural
resources are just extracted (with little or no
modification) in primary activities.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Economic Activities
Secondary Activities: Manufacturing is called
secondary activity. Natural resources are properly
modified in secondary activity.
Tertiary Activities: Economic activities which
support the primary and secondary activities are
called tertiary activities. Banking, transport, finance
and different types of services come under tertiary
activities.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Economic Activities
On the basis of production goal, economic activities are also divided into
two types, viz. market activities and non-market activities.
Market Activities: When some product or service is produced to be sold
in the market, it is called market activity.
Non-market Activities: When some product or
service is produced for self consumption, it is
called non-market activity. If a farmer produces
just enough to meet his family needs, then his
activity is a non-market activity. Similarly, the work
of a housewife is a non-market activity; because
she is working for the benefit of her family members.
Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource
Education
Education enhances the literacy level and skill level of a person. It also
helps in enriching the culture of the society. Presence of educated
persons in the society indirectly benefits the illiterate persons as well.
Government has taken various steps to spread education among the
people. Government strives to provide universal
access to education. It also makes various plans
to increase the retention of students. Special
emphasis is given on girl’s education.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Education
The plan outlay on education in the first plan was Rs. 151 crore. It has
increased to Rs. 43,825 crore in the tenth plan. The expenditure on
education was 0.64% of the GDP in 1950-51 and has increased to 3.98%
of the GDP in 2002-03.
Due to constant efforts, the literacy rate has grown
from 18% in 1951 to more than 70% in 2011.
Literacy rate is higher among males compared to
among females. Kerala is a state with more than
90% literacy, while some states have a very low
literacy level.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Institutions of Higher Education, Enrolment and Faculty

No. of No. of No. of No. of


Year
colleges universities students teachers

1950-51 750 30 263,000 24,000

1990-91 7,346 177 4,925,000 272,000

1996-97 9,703 214 6,755,000 321,000

1998-99 11,089 238 7,417,000 342,000

SOURCE: UGC annual report 1996-97 and 1998-99 and selected


educational statistics, Ministry of HRD

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Education
Government has recently launched Sarva Siksha Abhiyan to spread
education to remotest parts of the country. Under this programme, all
children under 6 to 14 years of age are given elementary education.
Government also provides Mid-Day Meal in government schools so that
children of poor people can attend the school.
Mid-day Meal has helped many children from
the poor family to attend school.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Education
The Tenth Plan has focused on increasing the enrolment in higher
education from 6% to 9%. The strategy is to increase access, quality and
adoption of state-specific curriculum to motivate enrolment in higher
education. Vocational courses are also offered and use of Information
Technology is being maximized to attain the goal.
The Tenth Plan also focuses on distant education,
convergence of formal, non-formal and IT education.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Health
A healthy person can fully realize his potential and can be an asset for the
economy. An unhealthy person shall not be able to realize his potential
and can be a liability for the economy. The national health policy of India
is aimed towards improving access to health services and improving
nutrition; especially among the underprivileged classes.
The government health system is composed
of many tiers of hospitals. The Primary Health
Centres are the bottom of this tier, and provide
general medical care to rural people.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Health
This is followed by Community Health Centres in bigger Tehsils or Block
level towns. The District Hospitals are at district level. Further, medical
colleges are present in major cities where doctors of all specialties are
present.
The reach of healthcare services is still too little but reduction in infant
mortality and improvement in life expectancy
over the years have shown that the healthcare
system has indeed helped in improving the
quality of human resources.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Health Infrastructure
1951 1981 2001
SC/PHC/CHC 725 57,363 163,181
Dispensaries
9,209 23,555 43,322
and hospitals
Beds 117,198 569,495 870,161
Doctors
61,800 268,700 503,900
(Allopathy)
Nursing staff 18,054 143,887 737,000
SOURCE: National Health Policy, 2002
SC: Sub centre, PHC: Primary Health Centre, CHC: Community Health
Centre

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Unemployment
When a person is actively seeking a job but is unable
to get employed, he is called an unemployed person.
People in the working age (15 to 59 years) only can be
termed unemployed if any one of them is without a
gainful employment. Additionally, if a person voluntarily
does not want to work he cannot be termed as
unemployed.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Unemployment
Seasonal Unemployment:
This type of unemployment is more prevalent in
rural areas. The farming cycle is season based.
There are certain months which are quite busy for
a farm worker. There are many other months when
a farm worker is without a work

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Unemployment
Hidden Unemployment : This type of unemployment is also more prevalent in
rural areas. To understand this, let us take the example of a family with 8 working
members. All of them are working on their farm. The size of the farm makes it
possible to be efficiently managed by 5 persons only. The extra three persons are
not contributing towards any growth in productivity. They are working because they
have no other gainful employment. Their potential could have given
better results if utilised elsewhere. Similar situation can
also be seen in some family owned shops where all
the family members may be working in the same
shop but not adding substantially to the output

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Unemployment
Educated Unemployed : The problem of unemployment among the
educated youth is very high in urban areas. Now-a-days, even highly
educated youths; like graduates and postgraduates; are unable to find a
job. Some analysts suggest that most of the highly educated youth do not
possess employability. But most of the analysts say that it is because of
demand supply gap.
While many technically qualified people are
unemployed, there are many jobs remaining
vacant because of lack properly trained person.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Effects of Unemployment
Unemployment can be emotionally draining on the unemployed person.
It can be a financial and emotional drain on his family members.
A large number of unemployed people is ultimately a liability for the society.
High rate of unemployment can also increase the crime rate.

Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource


Employment Scenario in Different Sectors in India
Agriculture is still the largest employer. However, the percentage of people
working in agriculture has declined in recent years. Due to the fact the
agriculture is the largest employer, the problem of seasonal and hidden
unemployment is quite high in India.
The secondary and tertiary sectors have failed to generate employment in
enough numbers which could absorb the
surplus labour force. In the secondary sector,
small scale sector is more labour intensive and
hence provides employment to a large number
of people. In recent years, the IT sector has produced
more opportunities for the technically qualified people.
Class 9th Economics: Chapter 2 – People as Resource

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