CH 2 PEOPLE AS RESOURCE

• 'People as Resource' refers to a country's working people in terms of their productive skills and abilities
• Population is considered a human resource
• Human capital formation occurs when the existing human resource becomes more educated and healthy
• Investment in human capital yields returns similar to 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 through education and medical care can provide high rates of return in the future
• Countries like Japan have invested in human resources
• 'Economic Activities' are divided into three sectors: 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
• Economic activities are divided into market activities and non-market activities
• Market activities involve remuneration, i.e done for pay or profit, while non-market activities are done for self-consumption
• Men were paid for their services, women were not
• Education plays a crucial role in utilizing economic opportunities
• Women with high education and skill formation were paid highly
• Quality of Population
• Depends on literacy rate, health, life expectancy, and skill formation
• Literate and healthy population is an asset for the country
• Education
• Contributes to society's growth, enhances national income, cultural richness, and governance efficiency
• Sarva Siksha Abhiyan provides elementary education to children aged 6-14 years
• Mid-day meal scheme introduced to improve attendance, retention, and nutritional status of children
• Health
• 12th plan focused on increasing access, quality, vocationalisation, and use of information technology in education
• Improvement in health status is a priority
• National Policy aims to improve healthcare accessibility, family welfare, and nutritional services
• Unemployment
• India faces unemployment in rural and urban areas
• Seasonal and disguised unemployment in rural areas, educated unemployment in urban areas
• Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resources and impacts economic growth
• Employment structure in primary sector characterized by self-employment
• Agriculture is the most labour-absorbing sector, but dependence on it has declined in recent years
• Surplus labour in agriculture has moved to secondary or tertiary sectors
• Small-scale manufacturing is the most labour-absorbing in the secondary sector
• New services like Biotechnology and Information Technology are emerging in the tertiary sector