Government and Economic Development PDF

**[CHAPTER 26 ]** **[Government and Economic Development]** **[The Big idea ]** At the end of this lesson, learners will be able to: identify the government\'s role in providing public facilities such as education, healthcare, transport-roadways, railways, drinking water, sanitation and recognis...

**[CHAPTER 26 ]** **[Government and Economic Development]** **[The Big idea ]** At the end of this lesson, learners will be able to: identify the government\'s role in providing public facilities such as education, healthcare, transport-roadways, railways, drinking water, sanitation and recognise their availability. describe the role of Government in regulating economic activities. analyse the role of NITI Aayog, India\'s premier policy-making institution, in providing direction for policy formulation and economic growth of the country. **[News Maker ]** Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is an Indian civil engineer who is renowned for changing the face of public transport in India with his leadership in constructing the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro. He is known as the \'Metro Man of India\'. In modern society, the effectiveness of every government is judged by its ability to work for the welfare of its people. So, apart from maintaining law and order, the government is also responsible for providing basic facilities to the common people. It is the duty of the government to distribute the national resources controlled by it among the people, in a fair manner. As a welfare state, it is imperative for the government to ensure the happiness of a maximum number of people by creating opportunities and conditions for economic prosperity and improvement of the quality of life. **[GOVERNMENT\'S EFFORTS TO PROVIDE PUBLIC FACILITIES ]** **[Education ]** Educated people are an asset to their family as well as the nation. They strengthen the foundations of a country. Besides, education empowers them with skills that contribute to the efficiency of the government and increases national income. The founding fathers and mothers of India were clear that education was an important area of concern and needed state initiative at various levels. Since independence, several commissions were formed to reform the education sector in India. The Kothari Commission, set up in 1964, emphasised on the need for education for national development and made several recommendations in this regard. Consequently, the Government of India formulated the National Policy of Education, in 1968 and later in 1986. The policy included a series of measures such as free and compulsory education, preservation and growth of Indian languages, availability of educational opportunities, proliferation of literacy, and reform in examination practices among others. The policy in 1986 included more objectives such as the vocationalisation of education and the need for public and private efforts to eradicate illiteracy among others. Over the years, the central and various state governments have executed different kinds of policies to develop the education sector in the country. In 2001, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, was launched with the aim to provide elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years. It is a time-bound programme of the central government, in partnership with the states, the local government and the community to achieve the goal of universal elementary education. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan was launched in 2009 for the growth and development of secondary education in public schools throughout India. The Saakshar Bharat initiative was launched in 2009 with the objective of achieving 80 per cent literacy level at national level, by focussing on adult women literacy. Midday meal scheme in schools has been introduced to encourage attendance and retention of children and to improve their nutritional status. **Warm-Up Exercise** SEL: SOcial awareness Have you heard about the scheme-Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao-launched by th Government of India? Do you know what it seeks to do? How important is it in a country such as India? Under the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme, a large amount of money has been provided to establish Navodaya Vidyalayas in 20 districts having a large concentration of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Vocational streams have been developed to equip a large number of high school students with vocational skills. Over the past 50 years, there has been a significant growth in the number of universities and institutions of higher learning in specialised areas. **[Let\'s Learn More ]** The 86th Amendment Act 2002 was passed to make elementary education a Fundamental Right for children in the age group of 6-14 years. **[Health ]** Since Independence, numerous efforts have been made to improve the health of the people. The following are some of the initiatives taken by the overnment in the health sector. The department for health has implemented several national health programmes throughout the country to tackle the menace of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Control and eradication of diseases such as polio, leprosy, tuberculosis, AIDS, dengue cancer, continue to be major national health programmes in the central health sector. Besides these, there are also several nation-wide universal immunisation programmes which are being actively pursued by the government at various levels. They aim to provide vaccines as protection against preventable diseases. The Pulse Polio Programme is one such programme. National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a comprehensive health programme aimed at improving healthcare facilities across rural India is run by the Ministry of Health. The programme has initiated several new mechanisms for healthcare delivery including training Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and the Janani Suraksha Yojana (motherhood protection programme). As a result of these efforts made by the government, there are a few positive results which have already been recorded. For example, the maternal mortality rate has gone down considerably. The infant mortality rate has also reduced significantly indicating improvement in the status of health in the country. As a result of these health measures, life expectancy has increased for both males and females. The death rate has also declined. In addition to the public sector, the private sector also provides healthcare services to people. However, the private sector facilities are very costly and common people cannot afford them. Recently, the Government of India also launched the Ayushman Bharat Yojana-National Health Protection Mission (as the part of National Health Policy 2017), which intends to provide healthcare to deprived households in the rural and urban sphere and subsume the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana within its structure. It involves a two-pronged approach to revolutionise the healthcare **[Words to Know ]** Infant mortality rate: the number of infant deaths (one year of age or younger) per 1000 live births life expectancy: the number of years that an individual is expected to live, as determined by statistics death rate: the ratio of the total deaths to total population over a specified period of time system in India. It will provide an insurance cover of INR 5 Lac per family per year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families in the country, accounting for almost 37 per cent of the population. The second aspect of the policy involves the establishment and reformation of 150,000 health subcentres into \"health and wellness\' centres to improve the scope for primary healthcare in India. The focus is on the critical need to tackle non-communicable diseases and mental health issues. Different private and public hospitals would be empanelled as eligible to provide treatment. Private hospitals will be subject to various rules such as package rates, transparency and customer care. **[Transport ]** Cheap and efficient transportation is an important requisite for all of us in our daily lives. Proper transport facilities are needed not only for people but also to transport goods and raw materials from one place to another. Thus, good transport system is indispensable. **[Roadways ]** India has one of the largest networks of roads in the world. The national highways constitute an important system of routes across the country. They carry about 70 per cent of the freight traffic and about 85 per cent of passenger traffic. The NH-7 which runs between Varanasi and Kanniyakumari covering a distance of 2,369 km is the largest national highway. Our network of national highways forms the economic backbone of India. Another massive project is the Golden Quadrilateral, which consists of roadways of 5,846 km length. It comprises four-lane or six-lane express highways connecting the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Once completed, it will be a major boost to trade and commerce. It will give an impetus to the industrial growth in small towns through which it will pass. Over short distances, buses are the most important forms of public transport on the roads. They are the main link, from home to the workplace, for a majority of the working people. Following a massive expansion of urban centres, the public bus system, even in major cities, has not been able to meet the growing demand. In rural India, the bullock cart is still used extensively as a means of transport. The other means of transport used in rural India are tractors, buses and trains. **[Railways ]** The Indian Railways is the largest railway network in Asia, and the second largest network of the world under one management. It provides the main mode of transportation to passengers and goods. It serves as the lifeline of our country and links people from the remotest corners of India. The railways also plans to construct a high-speed passenger corridor for running trains at a speed of 300-350 km per hour. Mumbai\'s suburban railways is a very efficient public transport system. It is the densest network in the world, attending to more than 65 lakh passengers daily. In the NCT (National Capital Territory) of Delhi and Kolkata, the metro train has emerged as one of the prominent means of the city\'s transport system. The metro railway system has also been introduced in Bengaluru. The government is planning to introduce it on a large scale in other cities as well. **[Let\'s Learn More ]** The Dedicated Freight Corridor in the Eastern and Western high-density area was set up in 2006. It is hoped that this will bring about sustained development in the region. It will also generate more employment opportunities and serve as a major link between the industrial and agricultural sectors. **[Drinking Water ]** In the year 2002, the United Nations announced an initiative called the Right to Water, which entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use. The Constitution of India also recognises the Right to Water as a part of the Right to Life under Article 21. This means that it is the right of every person to have sufficient amount of water to meet his/her daily needs and also get safe drinking water to lead a healthy life, free of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. The Government of India has been trying hard to provide safe drinking water to people. In urban areas, this is the function of the municipal bodies. Since Independence, the government has taken various steps to provide safe drinking water in the rural areas. Some of these steps are discussed below. **[The Accelerated Rural Water Supply ]** Programme launched in 1972-73 aims at providing safe drinking water in villages. A separate department of \'Safe Drinking Water Supply\' was created in the Ministry of Rural Development in 1999. **[Sanitation ]** Along with safe drinking water, sanitation is equally important for enabling people to lead a healthy life as conferred by the Right to Life. But more than two-thirds of the Indian population does not have access to adequate sanitation. Realising this problem, the Total Sanitation Campaign was launched by the government, in the year 1999. Besides these efforts by the government, the non-governmental organisation called Sulabh International has set up a large number of hygienic pay-and-use toilets (shauchalayas). Sulabh enters into contract with the local authorities of the area which provide land and funds for setting up the services. The maintenance costs are collected through the user charges that is charged for the use of the toilets. The cost of implementing these plans and schemes may be met by the central government wholly or shared partially with the concerned state government. The government meets these expenses partly from the taxes it collects (e.g., road tax, education cess) and partly from the service charges that the public pays for using these facilities (e.g., charges for water and electricity supply 1\. Ayushman Bharat Yojana is also called a\. National Health Protection Mission. b\. Janani Suraksha Yojana. c\. Saakshar Bharat. 2\. The Right to Water programme is an initiative by the b\. NITI Aayog. United Nation. a\. Government of India. 3\. Accredited Social Health Activists and the Janani Suraksha Yojana are schemes attached to the a\. National Health Protection Mission. b\. National Health Scheme. National Rural Health Mission. 4\. This is a non-governmental organisation working to set up a large number of hygienic pay-and-use toilets. a\. Ayushman Bharat Yojana. Sulabh International. b\. Total Sanitation Campaign. 5\. This Act makes elementary education a Fundamental Right for children in the age group of 6-14 years. a86th Amendment Act b\. 87th Amendment Act c\. 80th Amendment Act 6\. The Kothari Commission, which emphasised the need for education for national development was set up in a\. 1976. 1964. c\. 1985. 7\. The Ayushman Bharat Yojana will provide an insurance cover for almost a\. 37 per cent of the population. b\. 34 per cent of the population. c\. 39 per cent of the population. 8\. The Golden Quadrilateral comprises four-lane or six-lane express highways connecting a\. Delhi and Jaipur. by Kanniyakumari and Kashmir. bnk Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. 9\. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan aims to provide elementary education to a children in the age group of 6-14 years. b\. women. c\. Other Backward Classes. 0\. Saakshar Bharat has the objective to reach 80 per cent literacy level at the state level. ay 80 per cent literacy level at the national level. c\. 87 per cent literacy level at the national level. fill in the blanks. -The national highways carry about 70 per cent of the country\'s freight traffic. APINH-7 is the largest national highway in India. 3\. The Indian Railways is the largest railway network in the world under one management 4\. The United Nations declared the Right to Water in bodies is to provide safe drinking water. In urban areas, one of the functions of the III\. Answer the following questions in brief. 1\. What is meant by the term \'public facilities? 2\. Define infant mortality rate. 3\. What is the total length of the Golden Quadrilateral roadways? 4\. What is the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme? 5\. When did the government launch the Total Sanitation Campaign? What was the aim of this campaign? IV\. Answer the following questions in detail. 1\. Why should the government take the responsibility of providing \'public facilities? Give two reasons. 2\. What do you know about the National Policy of Education of 19867 3\. Write about the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. 4\. Do you think the distribution of safe drinking water in our country is adequate and fair? Give an example from your locality, S. Write a brief note on NITI Aayog. for experiential learning My Activity Corner Appraisal Timel CENTURY rivic literacy research and analysi evaluation Find out about successful public schemes launched by the Government of india in the last ten years. Make a chart on any one of them, with focus on the following points: key points of the scheme any criticism regarding the scheme achievements of the scheme recognition and awards for the scheme\'s success Create a Vision Document entical thinking planning Imagine you are the Mayor of your local municipality. You have won by a huge margin and the people expect a lot of reforms under your leadership. Devise a plan for your municipality wherein you should outline your vision for the development of education, health and sanitation in the area. Prepare a two-page vision document and present it in the class Scan Newspapers CENTURYC critical critical thinking thinkir Read newspapers of the last one month and scan headlines that tell you about the economic functions of the government. An example is Central government committed to providing free Covid-19 vaccines to everyone\' Collect 10-15 such headlines and share the list with your partner.