People As Resource Class 9 Notes Economics - Chapter 2

Chapter: 2

What are People As Resource ?

  • People as Resource is an effort to explain that population as an asset for the economy rather than a liability.
  • ‘People as Resource’ is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities.

Economic Activities By Men And Women

The various activities have been classified into three main sectors i.e.,

  • Primary: Primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying.
  • Secondary: Manufacturing is included in the secondary sector such as light and heavy manufacturing, food processing, oil refining and energy production.
  • Tertiary: Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance, etc. are included in the tertiary sector.
  • These three activities are inter-connected to each other.

Two Parts of Economic Activities

  • Market Activities: Market activities involve those activities which are performed basically for the purpose of the sale in the market and that include remuneration or profit. Motive to earn profit by selling the output in the market. These include production of goods or services, including government service.
  • Non-Market Activities: Non-market activities are the production for self-consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary product. The output of non-marketing activities is neither for sale in the market nor for earning profit.

Quality Of Population

The quality of population depends upon the literacy rate, health of a person indicated by life expectancy and skill formation acquired by the people of the country. The quality of the population ultimately decides the growth rate of the country. Literate and healthy population are an asset.

Education

  • Education is an important input for the growth of an individual.
  • Education contributes towards the growth of society.
  • It enhances the national income, cultural richness and increases the efficiency of governance.
  • There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls.
  • Literacy is not only a right; but also needed, if the citizens wants to perform their duties and enjoy their rights properly.

Health

  • The health of a person helps him to realise his/her potential and the ability to fight illness.
  • Health plays an important role in the economic development of the country; an unhealthy person is a liability to the country as he/she will not be able to maximise his/her output to the overall growth of the country.
  • Health is an indispensable basis for realising one’s well-being. Henceforth, improvement in the health status of the population has been the priority of the country.

Unemployment

  • Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the going wages but do not have a job.
  • Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resource. People who are an asset for the economy turn into a liability.

(a) Types of unemployment found in rural areas:

1. Seasonal unemployment: Seasonal unemployment happens when people are not able to find jobs during some months of the year. People dependent upon agriculture usually face such kind of problem. There are certain busy seasons when sowing, harvesting, weeding and threshing is done.
Certain months do not provide much work to the people dependent on agriculture.

2. Disguised unemployment: In case of disguised unemployment, people appear to be employed. For example, on a field, the work requires the service of five people but engages eight people. Three people are extra. The contribution made by the three extra people does not add to the contribution made by the five people. If three people are removed, the productivity of the field will not decline. The field requires the service of five people and the three extra people are disguised unemployed.

(b) Unemployment in Urban areas:

In urban area educated unemployment is seen, where people are willing to work and they are qualified to work but do not have a job.

Many youths with matriculation, graduation and post-graduation degrees are not able to find job.