People as Resource

• Introduction

  • Definition of People as Resource
  • Contrast with population as a liability
  • Contribution to the Gross National Product (GNP)
  • Investment through education and health

• Economic Activities by Men and Women

  • Primary Sector
    • Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining
  • Secondary Sector
    • Manufacturing and construction
  • Tertiary Sector
    • Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, services
  • Types of Economic Activities
    • Market activities: Production for profit, remuneration to pay
    • Non-market activities: Production for self-consumption (processing, own-account production)
  • Gender Division of Labor
    • Women generally look after domestic chores and unpaid work
    • Men work in the fields and markets
    • Women's participation in paid work is low due to education and skill constraints

• Quality of Population

  • Defined by literacy rate, health, and skill formation
  • Education
    • Enhances national income and cultural richness
    • Increases efficiency of governance
    • Government Initiatives:
      • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
      • Mid-day meal scheme
      • RTE Act 2009
      • Vocational streams and distance education
  • Health
    • Indispensable basis for realizing well-being
    • Indicators: Life expectancy, infant mortality rate (IMR), birth rates
    • Government Initiatives:
      • Expansion of health infrastructure (primary health centers, hospitals)
      • Eradication of epidemics and major diseases

• Unemployment

  • Exists when people willing to work at prevailing wages cannot find jobs
  • Types of Unemployment in Rural Areas
    • Seasonal unemployment: People unemployed during certain months of the farming year
    • Disguised unemployment: More people engaged in an activity than required (marginal productivity is zero)
  • Type of Unemployment in Urban Areas
    • Educated unemployment: Matriculates, graduates, and post-graduates unable to find jobs
  • Consequences of Unemployment
    • Waste of manpower resource
    • Tendency to turn into a social liability
    • Feeling of hopelessness and depression among youth
    • Decline in economic overload and increase in poverty