CBSE Class 9 Social Science People As Resource Chapter Notes

PEOPLE AS RESOURCE

HUMAN CAPITAL

Population becomes human capital when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care. Human capital is the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in them. People as a resource are a way of referring to; a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities.

(a)  Human Capital formation:

When the exiting ‘human resource’ is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy, we call it ‘human capital formation ‘that adds to the productive power of the country just like ‘physical capital formation’.

‘Investment in human capital (though education, training, medical care) yields a retum just like investment in physical capital’.

(i) It increases the productivity of the workers.

(ii) Educated, trained and healthy people can use natural resources in a better way.

(iii) It adds to quality of labor.

(iv) A country can earn foreign exchange by exporting services.

(b)  Human resources is different from other resources like land and physical capital:

Land consists of all natural resources. These are provided to us by nature. Physical capital consists of all those objects that help in further production of different type of goods and services. Human resource, on the other hand, consists of knowledge and skills. Other resources are not capital of brining about an improvement in they by their own effort; they can be changed only by human resources. They do not have a mind and a brain of their own. Human resources, on the other hand, can be trained to perform any task for which it is required. It required education, trained and health care. These, in turn, are again provided by human resources. Thus, human resources, unlike other factor resources, has an ability to improve itself.

(c) “Population is an asset fo4 the economy rather then a liability”:

Population, for long, had been seen as a liability which slows down the rate of economic growth. This view of population was based on the fact that population represented the stock of human being. Human beings make a demand on nation’s resources for their survival. Larger the population more the resources like, food, health facilities, etc., would be required by it for its survival. Hence, population would be treated as a liability. However, this view of population is not the correct one. More important thing is that population is the source of supply of the most important factor resource, i.e., human capital. It is human capital that organizes the population activity and makes other factor resources work. It is in this sense that the stock of knowledge and skills that constitutes human resource is a valuable asset. However it may be noted that unless human beings are converted into human resource they may constitute a liability.

(d) Importance of Human Capital Formation:

Investment in human resource (vie education and medical care) can give high rates of rates of rates in the future. This investment on people is the same as investment in land capital.

(e) Virtuous cycle of human development:

Educated parents are found to invest more heavily on the education of their child. This is because they have realized the importance of education themselves. They are also conscious of proper nutrition and hygiene. They accordingly look after their children’s needs for education at school and good health. a virtuous cycle is thus created in this case. a vicious cycle may be created by disadvantaged parents who, themselves uneducated and lacking in hygiene, keep their children in a similarly disadvantaged state.

‘’ countries like Japan did not have any natural resources; still they are developed countries’.

They have invested on people especially in the field of education and health.

The skilled and trained people have made efficient use of other resources like land and capital. Efficiency and technology evolved by people have made these countries rich/ developed.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES BY MEN AND WOMEN

All the activities which contribute to the flow of goods and services in the economy are called     economic activities. These activities add value to the national income. Economic activities have two parts

(i) Market Activities: Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs i.e., activity performed for money or profit. These include production of goods and services including government service.

(ii) Non-market activities are the production for silf-consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary product and own account production of fixed assets.

(a) Economic activities and Non- Economic Activities:

(a) Economic activities and Non-Economic Activities :

Economic Activities :

(i) Economic activities contribute to the flow of goods and services in an economy.

(ii) If there is an increase in productive activities that means economy is progressing.

(iii) Economic activities   lead to an increase in the personal income as well as the national income.

Non- Economic Activities:

(i)    Non- economic activities do not contribute to the flow of goods and services in an economy.

(ii)   Increase in non- economic activities is not an indicator of the economy is progressing.

(iii) Non- economic activities do not lead to an increase in the personal income and national ncome.

(b) Classification of the Various Economic Activities:

The different type of activities can be classified in three sectors, viz,

(i) Primary Sector:       (ii) Secondary Sector, and      (iii) Tertiary Sector.

(i)  Primary Sector: primary Sector includes all those activities which are reacted to natural resources, like cultivation of land. The primary Sector covers agriculture and allied activities like forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming and mining.

(ii) Secondary Sector: A secondary activities covers those activities that are concerned with the transformation of natural resource and products obtained the into other goods. For example, cultivation of wheat is a primary activity. Wheat is converted in to flour in a mill. This is secondary activity. Similarly, forestry is a primary activity. But manufacturing of furniture is a secondary activity and so on. Secondary sector includes quarrying and mining.

(iii) Tertiary Sector: it includes all those activities which produce different types of services that are required by society. Examples: services of a doctor, a teacher, a maid, an insurance company, a transport company. In an underdeveloped economy, primary sector is the dominant sector of the economy. With economic-growth, the relative importance of the secondary sector and tertiary sector increases, whereas that of the primary sector falls.

(c) Generally women are not paid as par with the men:

A majority of the women have meager education and low skill formation. Women are paid low compared to men. Most women work where there is no job security for them. Various activities relating to legal protection are meager. Employment in this sect6or is characterized by irregular and low income. In this sector, there is an absence of basic facilities like maternity leave, child care and other social security systems.

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 the4 country. the quality of the population ultimately decides the growth rate of the country.

(a)Education:

Advantages of Education:

(i)  Education helps individual to make better use of the economic opportunities available before him.

(ii) Education and skill are the major determinants of the earning of any individual of the market.

(iii) Education opens new horizons for an individual, provides new aspiration and develops values of life.

(iv) Education contributes towards the growth of society also.

(v) Education enhances the national income, cultural richness and increases the efficiency of governance.

(vi) Literacy is not only a right; it is also needed if the citizen are to perform their right properly.

Steps taken by the government to promote education in India:

Among the important measures taken in recent years to promote education, the following may be mentioned:

(i)  Steps have been taken by government to promote universalistion of education.

(ii)  Navodaya Vidhyalyas have been set up in each of the districts to provide quality education.

(iii) Vocational streams have been developed to equip large number of high school students with occupations related to knowledge and skills.

(iv) sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been launched with the aim of providing elementary education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years by 2010.

(v) Bridge courses and back to school camps have been initiated to increase the enrollment in elementary education.

(vi) Mid-day meal scheme has been implemented to encourage attendance and retention ofchildren . It also aims at improving nutritional status of children.

Four peculiarity of literacy in India:

(i) The literacy rates have increased from 18% in 1951 to 65% in 2001.

(ii) A vast differences is noticed across different section of population. Literacy among males is nearly 50% higher then females and it is about 50% higher in urban areas as compared to the rural areas.

(iii) Literacy rates very from 96% in some districts of Kerala to a below 30% in some parts of  Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

(iv) According to the census of 2001, a person aged 7 years and above who can read and write with understanding in any language is treated as literate.

Strategy pursued in the Tenth Five Year Plan to promote education :

(i)  The tenth Five-Year Plan plays special attention to increase the enrollment in higher education of the 18 to 23 years age group from the present 6% to 9% by the end of the plan period.

(ii) the strategy focuses on: a vast differences is noticed across, quality, adoption of states-specific curriculum modification, vocationalisation, networking no the use of information technology. The plan also focuses on distant education, convergence of formal, non-formal,  distant and IT education and IT education institutions.

(iii)  The Tenth Plan provides for an expenditure of Rs. 43, 825 crore on education during the period 2002-07, as against Rs. 151 Crore spent during the First Plan (1951-56).

(b) Health:

The heath of a person helps him to realize his potential and the ability to fight illness. An unhealthy person becomes a liability for an organization indeed; health is an indispensable basis for relishing one’s well benign. Health does not mean survival only; it involves not only the physical fitness of the individual but also his mental, economic and social well being. Good health increases the efficiency of a worker. . Good health increases the learning capacity of a worker.

Main elements of national health policy and its achievements:

Our national health policy aims at improving the accessibility of health care, family welfare and nutritional service with special focus on underprivileged segment of population. India has built up a vast health infrastructure and manpower required at primary, secondary, and tertiary care in government as well as in the private sector. The success of these measures gets reflected in the following:

(i) Life expectancy has increased to over 64 years in 2000.

(ii) Infant Mortality Rate has come down from 147in 1951 to 75 in 2000.

(iii) Crude birth rate have dropped to 26.1

(iv) Death rate has come down to 8.7 during the same duration of time.

All these facts are indicators of better health conditions in the country.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs.

(a)  Disguised Unemployment:

It is a situation in which more workers are working in an activity then required. the people who are actually engaged in such an activity appear to be employed but are not fully employed, for e.g. if for the cultivation of one hectare land, 10 workers are required but instead of 10 workers, 15 workers are working in this case 5 workers are disguised unemployed. In such cases even if the surplus workers are removed, the overall production does not suffer.

(b)  Seasonal Unemployment:

It is a type of unemployment in which a worker is employed during some parts of the year (especially during harvesting or sowing season) and remain without work during the rest of the year. Factors responsible for seasonal unemployment

(i)  Lack of small scale and cottage industries in rural areas.

(ii)  Lack of multiple cropping

(iii) Lack of commercialization of agriculture.

(c) Structural unemployment:

The working force in India is very large. It wants work but the existing capital structure is unable to absorb them. The mismatch of available capital and the size of the labor force create persistent unemployment both in agriculture and industry. We lack resources to improve agriculture and industry to provide employment to our labor force. This causes unemployment,

This type of unemployment occurs due to

 (i) Lack of capital

(ii) Lack of resources.

(iii) Under utilization of natural resources.

(iv) Surplus workers as compared to demand.

Indian economy is facing structural unemployment as work force is more then the demand.

(d) Educated Unemployment:

If the spread of education is not according to the needs of economy it can create an army of educated unemployment. In India educated unemployment has become a common phenomenon.

India has failed to balance its education policy according to the needs of the economy. There is surplus of manpower in certain categories while there is a death of technical skills in other sectors.

‘Education unemployment a peculiar problem of India’

Education unemployment is a person who has some formal education upto some level, say senior secondary or more, and

fails to find a job. This type of unemployment is on the rise in India. This is due to the following factors:

(i) Much of the education is of low-quality and general in nature. it does not have any vocation-specific component. Therefore, much of it is irrelevant.

(ii) The rate at which white-collar jobs have been created in India is much less then the rare at which population and education have been increasing.

(iii) In the globalizing world, demand for high-skilled labor is fast increasing. There is no demand for persons with not or little skills. Our education system is mass producing this second category of persons.

Steps for solving the problem of educated unemployment:

The ultimate solution to the problem of educated unemployment is to be sought within the educated system.

(i)  This needs a proper manpower planning. Manpower planning implies that a realistic assessment should be made about the manpower requirements in different sectors of the economy. Once these assessments have been made, education and training programs in schools, colleges, universities and other professional and training institutes should be accordingly designed.

(ii)  Education should be made vocational. So that an-adult can find a suitable job immediately after he leaves a school or a college.

(iii) Higher education should be restricted to a meaningful few. To be realistic, education at this level should be high quality and research-oriented. In short, universal education is a must; but higher education should be restricted to a few and           should be or high standards.

(e) Technical Unemployment:

If unemployment occurs owing to changes in technology, it is referred to as technical unemployment. Suppose, when

computer reduces the need for labourers drastically in an economy. This leads to technical unemployment.

(f) Magnitude of unemployment of India:

There are two ways by which the magnitude of unemployment is measured in India.

(i) The first one is through conducting sample surveys and population census.

(ii) The information provided by employment exchanges.

(g) Factors responsible for unemployment of India:

(i)  Rapid growth of population: our population has been continuously rising. From a population of  361 million in 1951 it has risen to 1027 million in 2001 but due to slow economic growth employment opportunities have not risen at the same pace.

(ii) Over dependence on agriculture: Even after more then 50 years of independence more then 60% of our population still depends upon primary sector for its livelihood.

(iii) Under-development of cottage and small scale industry: our rural sector is facing problems of disguised and seasonal unemployment. This is due to under development of cottage and small scale industry.

(iv) Under-development industries: due to shortage of capital and other essential input the industrialization process is very slow. So the industrial sector has failed to provide enough job opportunities to unemployed workers.

(h) Disadvantages of Unemployment:

 (i)  Wastage of resources: human capital is one of the most important resources. Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resource. People who are an asset for the economy turn into a liability. There is a feeling of hopelessness and despair among the youth.

(ii) Poverty: the basic cause of poverty is unemployment. People do not have enough money to support their family. Inability of educated people who are willing to work to find gainful employment implies a great social waste.

(iii) Increase in dependent population: unemployment tends to increase economic overload. The dependence of the unemployed on the working population increase.

(iv) Poor quality of life: the quality of life on 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.

Hence, unemployment had detrimental impact on the overall growth of an economy. Increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed econ0omy. It also wastes the resource, which could have been gainfully employed. If people cannot be used as a resource, they naturally appear as a liability to the economy.

(i)Employment scenario in the three sectors:

(i)Agriculture is the most labour absorbing sector of the economy. More then 60% of the population is already working in the primary sector. This sector is already facing the problem of disguised unemployment. Some of the surplus labor has moved to either the secondary or the tertiary sector.

(ii)  In the secondary sector, small scale manufacturing is the4 most labor-absorbing. There is much scope in this sector as new manufacturing units are being set up.

(iii)  In case of the tertiary sector, various new services are now appearing like biotechnology, information technology and so on. As the need for the service sector is increasing, this sector has the ability to absorb a large number of working population.

(j)  Methods to remove rural unemployment:

(i) By promoting small scale and cottage industry.

(ii) By spreading technical education.

(iii) By promoting   supplement works like animal rearing, horticulture etc.

People as Resource

• Economic Activities: The activities which result in the production of goods and services and value to the national income are called economic activities.

• Disguised Unemployment:It happens when the number of persons employed in a task is more than what is required ; If these extra persons are removed, there is no adverse effect on the output.

• Educated Employment: It occurs when people with formal education, upto some minimum standard ( generally upto secondary school) , fail to find a productive job.

• Gross National Product or National Income:Refers to the sum total of the money value of all final goods and services produced in an economy during a year.

• Market Activity: That part of the activity which produces such goods or services that are sold and purchased in the market, and the provider of the service gets paid for it.

• Non-market Activity: The performer of this type of economic activity produces primarily for self – consumption.

• Own-Account Production: The produced asset is not sold in the market; it is produced for self consumption, e.g. ,a house.

• Primary Sector :It consists of all those activities which are based on natural resources, such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, poultry farming, and mining.

• Seasonal Unemployment:It happens when people are not able to find jobs during some months of the year.

• Secondary Sector: It consists of all those activities which transform the shape of nature based raw materials into some useful objects, e.g. quarrying and manufacturing.

• Tertiary Sector:It consists of all those activities which are concerned with the distribution of goods and services so that these reach the final consumers, e.g. trade, transport, communication, tourism, health and insurance.

• Unemployment:A situation in which a person is willing to work at current wage rate, but doesn’t get a job.

• Vicious Cycle:One bad event results in another negative event, which in turn perpetuates the first event and so on; it becomes difficult to identify which is the cause and which is the effect of the cycle.

• Virtuous Cycle:One good event leading to another; this, in turn, further promotes the first positive event, which, in turn, once again promotes the second positive event and so on.

Q1 What is human capital formation? How is it different from Physical Capital formation?

Human capital formation refers to addition to the stock of human capital in the country. This addition takes the form of investment in education, training and health care. Human capital formation is both similar to and different from physical capital formation.

=> Human capital formation adds to the productive capacity and generation of income; physical capital formation also performs the same function.

=>Human capital formation adds to the stock of human skills and knowledge. Physical capital formation adds to the stock of tools equipments, machinery and buildings in an economy.

Q2 When do “people” become a resource?

Human beings without any ability to work are known as simple or ordinary people but given proper education, skills, training and proper health care, the same human beings constitute human capital; it is an indispensable resource which constitutes to a nation’s growth and welfare.

Q3 What do you understand by “people as a resource”?

The term People as a resource refers to population as asset for the economy. It is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their exciting productive skills and abilities.

Q4 What is the role of education in human capital formation?

Education plays an important role in human capital formation. Educated people earn higher incomes on account of higher productivity which aids to the growth of the economy. Society as a whole also gains indirect ways from educated population. The advantage of a more educated population spreads to those who are not directly educated. Population turns into a productive set as a result of education.

Q5 Does investment in human capital yield any return?

Yes investment human capital through education, training, medical care, yield a return in the form of higher incomes and higher productivity.

Q6 Name the factors on which quality of population depends.

The quality of population depends upon the

=> literacy rate

=>Health of a person indicated by life expectancy

=>Skill formation

Q7 Define infant mortality rate (IMR)

Infant mortality rate is the death rate of a child under one year of age.

Q8 Which age group constitutes the work force population?

The workforce population includes people from 15 - 59 years.

Q9 Define life expectancy.

Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average length of survival of a living thing. It is often calculated separately for differing gender and geographic location. Popularly it’s most often construed to mean the life expectancy at birth for a given human population, which is the same as the expected age at death. However, technically, life expectancy means the expected time remaining to live, and it can be calculated for any age.

Q10 Is there any difference b/w unemployment in rural and urban areas?

Yes the nature of the unemployed differs in rural and urban area. In case of rural areas there is seasonal and disguised unemployment. Urban areas have mostly educated unemployment.

Q11 What is the significance of the concept of Gross National Product?

Gross National Product measures the output of goods and services produced in an economy during a given year. It is a significant concept because An increase in the gross national product means that the output of goods and services in an economy has increased. More goods and services are now available in the economy. Availability of more goods and services means that the standard of living and the welfare of the people has improved. Therefore every country seeks to improve the size of GNP. 

Increase in GNP is also a measure of economic growth of a country. Suppose the GNP of an economy in the year 2000-2001 was Rs. 1,00,000 crore and it increases to Rs 1,10,000 crores in the year 2001-2002. The percentage increase in the GNP is measured as follows: (1,10,000 – 1,00,000 ) /1.00,000X 100 = 10%

GNP has increased by 10%. We will say that the rate of the growth of the economy in 2001-2002 was 10% over the preceding year.

Q12 ‘ Population is an asset for an economy rather that a liability.’ Comment.

Population , for long, has been seen as a liability which slows the rate of the economic growth. This view of population was based on the view that population represented the stock of the human beings. Human beings make a demand on the nation’s resources for their survival. It was thought that larger the population , more resources like food , clothing etc would be required for their survival. Hence, population was being treated as a liability.
However, this view for population was not correct.
More important thing is that it supplies the most important factor resource i.e. human capital. It is the human capital that organizes the production activities and uses other factor resources. It is in this sense that the stock of knowledge and skills that constitutes the human resource is a valuable asset.

Q13 What do you understand by the virtuous cycle of human development?

By virtuous cycle of human development we mean that human development causes more human development. Let us see how this happens:

Educated and healthy parents…………provide good education to their children , provide adequate nutrition and healthcare to their children. They are more efficient and productive. Enjoy higher incomes and better standard of living…………..children grow up as educated and healthy adults………….these adults become parents and the same cycle sets off again.

Conversely, the uneducated and sick parents are trapped in vicious cycle of underdevelopment. They neither have the means or the knowledge to provide education or healthcare to their children. Low productivity , low income and poverty perpetuate the vicious cycle.

Q14 Differentiate between different types of economic activities with the help of examples.

Different type of economic activities can be classified into:

a) Primary activities. Primary activities include those activities which are related to the natural resources like cultivation of land, forestry, poultry etc.

b) Secondary activities. These are the activities which are concerned with the transformation of natural resources into other goods. E.g. transformation of wheat into flour is a secondary activity.

c) Tertiary activities. It includes all the activities which produce different type of services needed by the people in the economy. E.g. banking, teaching, driving etc. In an undeveloped economy, primary sector is the dominant sector of the economy. With economic growth the relative shares of secondary and tertiary sectors increases whereas that of the primary sector falls.

Q15 Give two examples of how the human capital has brought phenomenal changes in the Indian economy.

a) Green revolution. It occurred in the late 1960s. It brought about massive increase in the crop production. It was primarily brought out by the application of the human mind and knowledge in cultivation.

b) Information Technology Revolution. It is relatively a new phenomenon. It has been brought out by the application of human skills and knowledge. It has totally changed the way the information is generated and distributed.

Q16 What is the role of education in human capital formation?

Expenditure on the education of a child can be seen as an investment. Like any other investment, investment in education brings returns in future.

Education provides better knowledge and skills. A person with more knowledge and skills is generally more productive. As a result:

a) An educated person has higher income because his services command a higher price.

b) A country’s resources are better utilized. As a result the output and the overall GNP of a nation also increase.

Education enhances the cultural richness of a country and the efficiency of governance.

Q17 Examine the role of health in human capital formation.

A healthy person is able to devote more time to his work.

He has more strength, energy and stamina.

Hence, he is more efficient and productive.

Therefore any expenditure on healthcare may be regarded as the investment made in human capital formation.

Q18 Women are employed in low paid jobs. Do you agree?

This is not universally true that women are employed into low paid jobs. A worker’s remuneration in a work depends upon the level of skill and knowledge involved. All those with higher skill, knowledge and training are paid higher. There is no discrimination between men and women. However, in general a large number of women are illiterate. They do not possess any skills or training. Such women have to take up low paid jobs generally in unorganized sectors of the economy. Also they are subjected to job insecurity.

Q19 Outline the strategies of the Tenth Five Year Plan to promote education.

The Tenth Five Year Plan aims to :

a) Increase the number of schools and colleges.

b) Quality improvement

c) Vocationalisation of education

d) Promotion of distant education

e) Convergence between formal and non – formal system of education

f) Adoption of state specific curriculum

Q20 ‘Unemployment rate in India is low.’ Explain.

Unemployment rate in India is low as compared to other countries. In fact India experiences a large rate of underemployment . This is because of the following reasons:

a) A poor cannot afford to sit unemployed for a long period of time. He has to find work for his subsistence. Therefore, he accepts whatever job comes his way. It may be a low productivity, low paid job. It may involve much hard work without sufficient remuneration. A poor man would be compelled to accept it. He would be recorded as employed and not as unemployed.

b) A major part of our labour force is engaged into agriculture. In agriculture it is difficult to identify who is employed and who is unemployed, although all persons will be reported as employed. The reality is that a large portion of the agricultural labour force is disguisedly unemployed.

Q21 Distinguish between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment.

Disguised unemployment is a situation where the number of people employed in a job is more than what is optimally required. E.g. suppose on a given farm land, one farmer cultivates the land and manages to produce 5000 kg of wheat. Soon, two other members of his family join him and share his work. The total output remains as before i.e. 5000 kg. it means that these two additional labourers are not making any contribution to the total output. They work as extras on land. These two persons will be called as disguisedly unemployed.

Seasonal unemployment refers to a situation where a large number of people are unable to find a job during some months of the year. E.g. agriculture is a seasonal activity. There is an increased demand for labour at the time of sowing, harvesting, weeding and threshing. In between there is either no or little demand for labour. Agricultural labourer finds himself as unemployed during this period. It is called seasonal unemployment.

Q22 Why is educated unemployment a peculiar problem in India?

Educated unemployment is a situation where a person has some formal education but fails to find a job for himself.

India is experiencing this problem mainly because of the following reasons:

Much of the education is of low-quality. There is rarely any vocation element in it. Therefore, much of education is irrelevant.

The rate at which the white collar jobs are created in India is much less than the rate at which the population and education is increasing.

Q23 How does unemployment adversely affect an economy?

Unemployment adversely affects in an economy in the following ways:

a) It leads to the wastage of national resources. Human beings represent a national resource. When in a job, contribute to the generation of national product. But when unemployed, their potential contribution to the economy’s growth remains zero.

b) An employed person is a human resource and therefore an asset for the economy. An unemployed person is a liability. He does not contribute to the national product. Rather puts a pressure on the natural resources for his survival.

c) More the unemployed persons in an economy, more persons are dependent on others. More of the income gets consumed and only a little is saved. Little savings means that only little is available for investment.

Q24 What are the causes of unemployment in our economy?

Rapid growth of population cuts away our limited and existing and limited resources, retards capital formation, leaves no surplus and causes unemployment.

a) Slow rate of economic growth. India is a slowly growing economy. This slow economic growth is neutralized by our rapid growth of population.

b) Overdependence on agriculture. Over 60% of the Indian population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Seasonal character of agriculture and disguised unemployment in agriculture are the causes of unemployment in our country.

c) Under-developed industries. Industrial development in India is very slow due to shortage of capital, essential inputs, power shortage, shortage of raw materials, outdated machinery, sick industrial units etc. Hence, job opportunities are very limited in industrial sector.

d) Defective educational system. Our educational system is educated. It is not job-oriented. As a result, we have a large number of educated unemployed.

e) Less savings, investment and capital formation. Our economy is characterized by low savings due to low incomes and poverty, size of our families, less investment and almost no capital formation.

f) Use of capital intensive technology. To earn huge profit and to save their industries from labour unrest, frequent strikes, our industries are switching over to capital intensive technology.