NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Economics Part B Chapter 7 Current Challenges Facing Indian Economy
Q. Who is a worker?
Ans. A worker is an individual who does some productive work to earn a livelihood.
Q. Find the odd one out.
Ans. A cashier in Mother Dairy and construction worker are the odd one out. They are salaried employees and they render their services to others in exchange of rewards (salaries or wages). All the others are self-employed.
Q. How will you know whether a worker is working in the informal sector?
Ans. From the following points, we can know whether a worker is working in the informal sector:
Q. Find the odd one out.
Ans. (iv) Shoeshine boy is the odd one out of the other options. All others (a rickshaw puller, a mason and mechanic shop worker) are hired workers who render their services to their employers and get remunerated in the form of salaries of wages. Whereas shoeshine boy is self-employed.
Q. Who is a casual wage labourer?
Ans. Those people who are not hired by their employers on a regular/permanent basis and do not get social security benefits, are said to be casual workers/labourers e.g. construction workers.
Q. What is organic farming and how does it promote sustainable development?
Ans. Organic farming refers to a system of farming that sustains and enhances the ecological balance. In other words, this system of farming relies upon the use of organic inputs for cultivation. The traditional farming involves the use of chemical fertilisers, toxic pesticides, etc. that harms the eco system drastically so, this type of farming is practiced to produce toxic-free food for the consumers while simultaneously maintaining the fertility of the soil and contributing to ecological balance. This type of farming enables eco friendly sustainable economic development.
Q. Do you think various measures taken by the government to improve agricultural marketing are sufficient? Discuss.
Ans. Government has adopted various measures for improving agricultural marketing such as regulation of markets, provision of physical infrastructure, co-operative marketing and policy measures like MSO, etc. But even after these measures taken by the government agricultural markets are still predominated by moneylenders rural political elites, big merchants and rich farmers which are doing private trade. The current infrastructure facilities are inadequate to meet the growing demand and need to be improved further, Cooperative are also suffering from problems like inadequate coverage of farmer members, lack of appropriate link between marketing and processing co-operatives and inefficient financial management.
Q. As compared to urban women, more rural women are found working. Why?
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As compared to the urban women more rural women, accounts for higher share in the female workforce. Clarify?
Ans. The difference in participation rates is very high between urban and rural women. In urban areas, for every 100 urban females, only about 14 are engaged in some economic activities. In rural areas, for every 100 rural women, about 26 of them participate in the employment market. Hence, where men are able to earn high incomes, families discourage female members from taking up jobs. Earnings of urban male workers are generally higher than rural males and so urban families do not want females to work.
Apart from this, many activities of the household in which urban women are engaged, are not recognised as productive work, while women working on farms in the rural areas are considered a part of the workforce if they are being paid wages in cash or in the form of foodgrains.
Q. The following table shows distribution of workforce in India for the year 1972-73. Analyse the data and give reasons for the nature of workforce distribution.
| Place of Residence | |||
| Male | Female | Total | |
| Rural | 125 | 69 | 194 |
| Urban | 32 | 7 | 39 |
Ans. From the given table, following points can be noticed about the nature of workforce distribution:
Q. Why are less woman found in regular salaried employment?
Ans. Less woman are found in regular salaried employment due to the following reasons:
Q. Compared to the 1970s, there has hardly been any change in the distribution of workforce across various industries. Comment.
Ans. It is not true that there has hardly been any change in the distribution of workforce across various industries since 1970s. Distribution of workforce in industrial sector shows substantial shift from agricultural work to non-agricultural work. In 1972-73, about 74% of workforce was engaged in primary sector but this proportion has declined to 53% in 2009-10. The shares of secondary and service sectors have increased from 11 to 21% and 15 to 25%, respectively.
The distribution of workforce in different status indicates that over the last four decades (1972-2010), people have moved from selfemployment and regular salaried employment to casual wage work which is not a healthy trend as this makes labour more vulnerable to exploitation. Yet self-employment continues to be the major employment provider.
Q. Explain how the opportunity costs of negative environmental impact are high.
Ans. The negative environmental impact has high opportunity costs as explained below:
Q. Discuss the key issues of action plan for rural development in India.
Ans. The following are the key issues of action plan for rural development in India: