People As Resources
Human Capital : Population becomes human capital when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care. In fact, human capital is the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in them.
Human Resources : 'People as Resource' is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Its ability to contribute to the creation of the Gross National Product.
When the existing '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 yields a return just like investment in physical capital. Human capital is in one way superior to other resources like land and physical capital: human resources can make use of land and capital. Land and capital cannot become useful on its own. For many decades in India, a large population has been considered a liability rather than an asset. But a large population need not to be a liability. It can be turned into a productive asset by investment in human capital. Educated parents are found to invest more heavily on the education of their child. A virtuous cycle is thus created in this case. In contrast, 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 have invested in human resources. They did not have any natural resources. These countries are developed/rich countries. They import the natural resources needed in their country. Efficiency and the technology evolved by people have made these countries rich/developed.
Economic Activities by Men and Women : The various activities have been classified into three main sectors i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary.
Primary Sector: Includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, and mining.
Secondary Sector: Quarrying, construction and manufacturing is included in the secondary sector.
Tertiary Sector: Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance etc. are included in the tertiary sector.
Economic Activities : Economic activities also called market activities, are those activities in which income is got in return for the work done: Market activities and non-market activities.
Market activities: These 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: Non market activities production for self-consumption. These can be consumption and processing of primary product and own account production of fixed assets.
Division of Labour : Due to historical and cultural reasons, there is a division of labour between men and women in the family. Women generally look at domestic work and men work in the fields. The women who work in the homes are not paid anything, while the men who work outside the homes earn wages. Women get paid for their work only in the labour market.
The earnings of the women are determined on the basis of skill and education.
Education and skill are the major determinants of the earnings of any individual in the market.
Most of the women work where job security is not there. Women who have very less education and low skill formation and are paid low . However, women with high education and skill formation are paid at par with the men. Among the organized sector, teaching and medicine attract them the most.
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 the country. The quality of the population ultimately decides the growth rate of the country. Illiterate and unhealthy population are a liability for the economy. Literate and healthy population are an asset.
Education : Education was an important input for the growth. Education contributes towards the growth of society also. It enhances the national income, cultural richness and increases the efficiency of governance. There is a provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls. The expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP rose from 0.64% in 1951–52 to 4.6 % in 2020-2021(allocated in the 2020 budget). The literacy rates from 18% in 1951 to 77.7% in 2019-2020. According to the 2011 Census of India, the overall rate of literacy is 73 per cent. But breaking up the national average reveals that while the rate of literacy for men is 80.9 %, for women it is 64.6 % . This means that more than one-fourth of the country's population is still illiterate.
Steps to spread education : Sarva shiksha abhiyan is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14. Mid day meal schemes has been implemented in schools to encourage attendance and relation of children and improve their nutritional status. The 10th five year plan aimed to increase the enrollment in higher education of the 18-23 years age group. And it also focuses on distance education and convergence of formal, non formal distance and IT educational institutions.
Health :- The health 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 realizing one’s well being. The National policy, aimed at improving the accessibility of health care, family welfare and nutritional service with special focus on the underprivileged segment of population. Over the last five decades 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.
Unemployment :- Unemployment is said to exist when people who are willing to work at the prevailing wage rates cannot find jobs. When we talk of unemployed people, we refer to those in the age group of 15-59 years. Children below 15 years of age and the old people above 60 are not considered while counting the number of unemployed.
Nature of Unemployment in India : Seasonal unemployment occurs when people fail to get work during some months of the year (that is, during off-season). Farm labourers usually face this kind of problem. Disguised unemployment is another kind of unemployment found in rural areas. Such kind of problem arises due to excessive pressure of population on agriculture. Disguised unemployment refers to a situation wherein the number of workers in a job is more than actually required to do the job. The extra number of workers are disguisedly unemployed.
Consequences of Unemployment : Unemployment leads to wastage of manpower resources. Unemployment tends to increase the economic overload that is the dependence of the unemployed on the working population. Therefore they become liability. Unemployment may lead to an increase in social unrest and tension. Quality life of an individual and society will be affected. General decline in health status and increased school dropouts which affects overall growth of a society.
Share
& Comment
Tweet