CBSE Class 9 Economics Notes Chapter 2 - People as Resource

Chapter 2 – People as Resource is an effort to explain how the population is an asset for the economy rather than a liability. Population becomes human capital when there is an investment made in the form of education, training and medical care. Human capital is the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in them. Here, we have provided CBSE Class 9 Economics notes for Chapter 2 to help students grasp concepts quickly and revise thoroughly before the exams. These Economics notes for Class 9 have been designed precisely, covering almost all the concepts mentioned in the chapter. Preparing from these notes will help students to fetch excellent marks in their Class 9 Economics exam.

CBSE Class 9 Economics Notes Chapter 2 – People as Resource

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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.

Quality of Population

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.

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