CBSE
Class 9 Economics Notes Chapter 2 – People as Resource
Overview
‘People as Resource’ is a way of referring to a country’s
working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Like
other resources, the population is also considered as a human resource. When
the existing ‘human resource’ is further developed by becoming more educated
and healthy, it is called human capital formation. Investment in human capital
(through education, training, and medical care) yields a return just like an
investment in physical capital.
Human capital is superior to other resources like land and
physical capital. Total productivity adds to the growth of the economy.
Investment in human resources (via education and medical care) can give high
rates of return in future. Countries like Japan have invested in human
resources.
Economic Activities by Men and Women
The activities in Economics are divided into three sectors,
i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary sector includes agriculture,
forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying. The
secondary sector includes manufacturing. The tertiary sector includes trade,
transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services,
insurance, etc. These activities are termed economic activities. Economic
activities have two parts — market activities and 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 the own-account production of fixed assets.
There was a division of labour between men and women. Men
were paid for their services, but to the contrary, women were not paid for
their services. Education plays an important role for individuals to make
better use of economic opportunities. Most women used to work in places where
there was no job security. In this sector, employment was characterised by
irregular and low income. Basic facilities were missing, like maternity leave,
childcare and other social security systems. However, women with high education
and skill formation were paid highly.
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. It ultimately decides the growth rate of
the country, and a literate and healthy population is an asset.
Education
Education contributes to the growth of society, enhances the
national income and cultural richness and increases the efficiency of
governance. Literacy is needed for citizens to perform their duties and enjoy
their rights properly. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, which was introduced in the year
2010, provides elementary education to all children in the age group of 6–14
years. To encourage attendance and retention of children and improve their
nutritional status, a mid-day meal scheme was introduced. The 12th plan focused
on increasing access, quality, adoption of state-specific curriculum
modification, vocationalisation and networking on the use of information
technology, distance education, and convergence of formal, non-formal, distance
and IT education institutions.
Health
Improvement in the health status of the population has been
the priority of the country. The National Policy, too, aimed at improving the
accessibility of healthcare, family welfare and nutritional service, especially
for the underprivileged segment of the population. India, over the last five
decades, has developed its manpower required in the primary, secondary and
tertiary sectors.
Unemployment
In India, we have unemployment in rural and urban areas,
though the nature of unemployment differs in rural and urban areas. In rural
areas, unemployment was seasonal and disguised. In urban areas, unemployment
was educated unemployment. Seasonal unemployment occurs when people are not
able to find jobs during a few particular months of the year. In disguised
unemployment, people appeared to be employed. Educated unemployment became a
common phenomenon in urban areas. Unemployment leads to the wastage of manpower
resources, tends to increase economic overload, and has a detrimental impact on
the overall growth of an economy. In India, statistically, the unemployment
rate is low.
In the primary sector, the employment structure is
characterised by self-employment. Agriculture is the most labour-absorbing
sector of the economy. But, in recent years, there has been a decline in the
dependence of population on agriculture. Some of the surplus labour in
agriculture has moved to either the secondary or the tertiary sector. In the
secondary sector, small-scale manufacturing was the most labour-absorbing. In
the case of the tertiary sector, various new services are now appearing, like Biotechnology,
Information Technology and so on.
