People as Resource -Economics NCERT Notes for UPSC

'People as Resource' is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Population becomes a resource (Human capital) when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care. For example, countries like Japan, despite not having any major natural resources are rich/developed as they have invested in human resource. 

Navigate further as this blog is an effort to explain how the population is an asset for the economy rather than a liability.  This blog will scale up your UPSC CSE preparation significantly.

Different Economic Activities done by People

Human Capital in a country undertakes various economic activities that have been classified into three main sectors i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary. 

• Primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining and quarrying. 
• Secondary sector includes Manufacturing. 
• Tertiary Sector includes trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance etc.

These activities add value to the national income. These activities are called 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 production of goods or services, including government service.
• Non-market activities are the production for self-consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary product and own account production of fixed assets.

Quality of Population (Human Capital)

The quality of the population ultimately decides the growth rate of the country; it depends upon the literacy rate, health of a person (indicated by life expectancy) and skill formation acquired by the people of the country. 

It can be enhanced by interventions in 2 major areas i.e.  Education and Health. 

Education

Not only for the individual, education contributes towards the growth of society also. It enhances the national income, cultural richness and increases the efficiency of governance.

Various steps taken by the Government to promote education:

• Provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls.
• Establishment of pace setting of schools like Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district.
• Development of vocational streams to equip students with occupation related skills.
• Initiatives like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, bridge courses and back to-school camps have been initiated.
• Mid-day Meal scheme has been implemented to encourage attendance and retention of children and improve their nutritional status. 

Impact of Government Initiatives

• The literacy rates have increased from 18% in 1951 to 74% in 2010-11. 

• The primary school system has expanded to over 8.41 lakh in 2015–16. 
• Over the past 50 years, there has been a significant growth in the number of university and institutions of higher learning in specialised areas.

Challenges Ahead

• Gender based difference: Literacy among males is nearly 16.6% higher than females and it is about 16.1% higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas.
• Inter-state difference: In 2011, literacy rates varied from 94% in Kerala to 62% in Bihar.
• Poor quality of schooling and high dropout rate has diluted the huge expansion of schools. 

Health 

The health of a person helps him to realise his/her potential and the ability to fight illness. It is an indispensable base for realising one’s well-being. 

Various Steps Taken by the Government to Promote Health

• Our national policy aims at improving the accessibility of healthcare, family welfare and nutritional service with a special focus on the underprivileged segment of the population.
• Vast health infrastructure and the required manpower at primary, secondary and tertiary sector in government, as well as, in the private sector has been developed. 

Impact of Government Initiatives 

• Increase in the life expectancy to over 68.3 years in 2014. 
• Infant mortality rate (IMR) has come down from 147 in 1951 to 34 in 2016. 
• Crude birth rates have dropped to 20.4 and death rates to 6.4 within the same duration of time.

Also Read: Determination of Income and Employment

Challenges ahead

• In Institutions like medical colleges, inter-state differences remain. For example, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have the maximum number of medical colleges.

Also Read: Paper on India's Poverty

Macroeconomics - Indian Economy Notes

Unemployment 

Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs. In case of India, we have unemployment in both rural and urban areas. 

Types of Unemployment

• Seasonal Unemployment is that in which people are not able to find jobs during some months of the year (usually faced in the agriculture sector). 
• Disguised Unemployment: In case of disguised unemployment people appear to be employed but actually they are not employed. This usually happens among family members engaged in agricultural activity. 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. 
• Educated unemployment is that where educated youth are not able to find jobs. A paradoxical manpower situation is witnessed as surplus of manpower in certain categories coexist with shortage of manpower in others. There is unemployment among technically qualified person on one hand, while there is a dearth of technical skills required for economic growth.

Different Aspects of India’s Unemployment

• Statistically, the unemployment rate is low. 
• Employment structure is characterised by self-employment in the primary sector. And there is also prevalence of disguised unemployment in this sector. 
• The concept of sharing of work in the field and the produce raised reduces the hardship of unemployment in the rural sector. But this does not reduce the poverty of the family; gradually surplus labour from every household tends to migrate from the village in search of jobs. 

Problems arising from Unemployment

• Leads to wastage of manpower resources. 
• The dependence of the unemployed on the working population increases.
• The quality of life of an individual as well as of society is adversely affected.
• When a family has to live on a bare subsistence level there is a general decline in its health status and rising withdrawal from the school system. 
• Detrimental impact on the overall growth of an economy.
• Increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy. 

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