People as Resource | Social Science (Economics) Grade 9 CBSE

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The language of people as resource

This chapter has its own vocabulary. Tap each term to see what it means and how the ideas — human capital, education, health, economic activities and unemployment — connect.

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The three big ideas

People as resource — looking at a country’s people as a productive asset: a working, skilled population, not just mouths to feed.
Human capital — the skills, knowledge and good health a population carries. It is built by investing in education, training and health, which makes people more productive.
Education — raises a person’s skills and income and lifts national growth; it also brings wider social benefits, such as informed, healthier and more aware citizens.
Health — good health lets people work to their full ability. Spending on healthcare is treated as an investment, not just a cost.

Worked example. Why is spending on education called an investment?

Step 1 — skills rise. Education gives people knowledge and skills they did not have before.

Step 2 — productivity and income rise. Educated, skilled people produce more and earn more than unskilled workers.

Step 3 — the spending pays back. Higher productivity and incomes feed national growth, so the money spent returns to society — that is why it counts as an investment.

Common mistake: a large population is not automatically a burden. When its people are educated and healthy, they become a country’s greatest resource — it is the investment in people, not their numbers alone, that decides this.

Economic activities — work that produces goods or services for income. People take part in them to earn and to add to the nation’s output.
Primary — activities that draw directly on nature: farming, fishing, forestry and mining.
Secondary — activities that process raw materials from the primary sector into finished goods, mainly manufacturing in factories.
Tertiary — services that support the other two sectors: transport, trade, banking, teaching and health.

Unemployment — when people who are willing and able to work cannot find jobs. It wastes a country’s human resource.
Disguised unemployment — more people work on a task than are really needed, so some add nothing to output; removing them would not lower production. It is common in agriculture.
Seasonal unemployment — people cannot find work during certain months of the year, like farm labourers idle between sowing and harvest.
Effects — unemployment wastes human resources, lowers output, raises the number of people who depend on others, and can push families towards poverty and distress.

Where you'll meet it

People as resource, at work

Why countries fund schools & hospitals

Governments spend on education and healthcare because it turns a large population into productive human capital. Schools raise skills and incomes; hospitals keep people healthy enough to work to their full ability — so the spending returns to the economy through higher output.

Building a skilled workforce

Training and skills make workers more productive, attract new industries and raise earnings. A skilled, healthy workforce lets a country shift from low-paid primary work towards better-paid secondary and tertiary activities — strengthening the whole economy.

Check yourself

Competency quiz

Modelled on the competency-based pattern — MCQ, assertion–reason and a case study, testing whether you can use the ideas, not just recall them.

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