Concerns and Needs in Diverse Contexts Chapter Notes | Home Science for Class 11 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Introduction

• Unit I focused on understanding self and factors influencing decision-making.
• This chapter shifts focus to understanding family, community, and society, emphasizing their roles in an adolescent's life.
• Discusses concerns and needs such as health, work, resources, education, and textile traditions within diverse social contexts.

Nutrition, Health and Hygiene

• Every individual aspires to live a good quality life with a sense of well-being.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food.
• Environmental conditions and lifestyles can adversely affect health.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete mental, physical, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.
• Disease is an impairment of body health, disrupting normal functions and deviating from well-being.
• Health is a fundamental human right, applicable to all regardless of age, gender, caste, creed, location, or nationality.

Health and Its Dimensions

• Social health for individuals involves well-being, social skills, and the ability to function within society.
• Social support aids in coping with stress, problem-solving, and promotes positive adjustment and personal growth.
• Scientific studies indicate that socially well-adjusted individuals live longer and recover faster from diseases.
• Social determinants of health include employment status, workplace safety, access to health services, cultural/religious beliefs, taboos, value systems, and socio-economic and environmental conditions.

Mental Health: Encompasses emotional and psychological well-being, enabling individuals to utilize cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet daily demands.

• Indicators of positive mental health include feeling capable and competent, handling normal stress levels, maintaining satisfying relationships, leading an independent life, coping with mental or emotional stress, recovering from setbacks, and not experiencing prolonged fear, defeat, or depression.

Physical Health: Involves physical fitness and proper body functioning, allowing normal activities without unusual fatigue and adequate resistance to infections and diseases.

Health Care

• Individuals are responsible for their own health, but it is also a public concern, with governments providing health services.
• Good health is foundational for quality of life, standard of living, and social, economic, and human development.
• Health care includes services for promoting, maintaining, monitoring, or restoring health, encompassing preventive, promotive, and therapeutic care.

Health care services are delivered at three levels:

• Primary Health Care: The first level of contact between individuals and the health care system.
• Secondary Health Care: Involves referral to specialized hospitals, such as district hospitals, from primary care.
• Tertiary Health Care: Involves referral from primary and secondary systems for specialized intensive care, advanced diagnostics, and serious medical care.

Indicators of Health

• Health is multidimensional, influenced by various factors.
• Indicators to assess health include mortality, morbidity (illness/disease), disability rates, nutritional status, health care delivery, utilization, environment, health policy, and quality of life.

Nutrition and Health

• Nutrition and health are closely interlinked, with nutrition promotion being a primary element in the global 'Health for All' campaign.
• Nutrition maintains body organs and tissues in structure and function, supporting growth and development.
• Good nutrition enables enjoyment of good health, resistance to infection, adequate energy levels, and performance of daily tasks without fatigue.
• In children and adolescents, nutrition is vital for growth, mental development, and achieving potential.
• For adults, adequate nutrition supports a socially and economically productive and healthy life.
• Health status determines nutrient requirements and food intake; illness increases nutrient needs and nutrient breakdown, adversely affecting nutritional status.
• Nutrition is a fundamental pillar of human life, health, and development.

Nutrients

• Over 50 nutrients are found in food, classified into macronutrients (required in larger amounts) and micronutrients (required in small amounts).
• Macronutrients include fat, protein, carbohydrate, and fiber.
• Micronutrients include minerals (e.g., iron, zinc, selenium) and fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, functioning as co-factors and co-enzymes in metabolic reactions.
• Nutrients influence gene expression and transcription.
• Different organs and systems are critical for digestion, absorption, metabolism, storage, and excretion of nutrients and their metabolic end products.
• Every cell in the body requires nutrients.
• Nutrient requirements vary by age
• Nutrient requirements in a healthy state depend on age, sex, physiological state (e.g., infancy, childhood, adolescence, pregnancy, lactation), and physical activity level.
• Energy and nutrient requirements for energy metabolism (e.g., thiamine, riboflavin) are influenced by physical activity.
• Knowledge about nutrients, their metabolism, sources, and functions is essential.
• A balanced diet should provide all necessary nutrients in required amounts.
• Nutrition science addresses biological, metabolic, clinical, and public health aspects, including nutrient needs, deficiencies, and disease prevention (e.g., heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension).
• Food intake is influenced by taste, availability (food security), purchasing power, environment (water, irrigation), and national/international policies.
• Culture, religion, social status, beliefs, and taboos also affect food choices, intake, and nutritional status.
• Good health and nutrition lead to happier, more productive individuals; healthy parents care better for children, and healthy children perform better in school.
• Starvation and undernourishment hinder productivity, sociability, and contribution to society.

Factors Affecting Nutritional Well-being

Food and Nutrient Security: 

•  This ensures that every individual, regardless of age, has year-round access to and can obtain sufficient food and nutrients according to their specific needs. 
•  This is essential for leading a healthy life. 

Care for Vulnerable Individuals: 

•  Vulnerable individuals, such as babies, expectant mothers, and the ill, require special care and attention. 
•  For babies, it involves providing the right type and amount of food along with necessary care. 
•  Expectant mothers need support from their families, communities, and employers, while sick individuals require various forms of assistance, including food, nourishment, and medication. 

Health for All: 

•  This includes preventing and treating diseases, with a focus on infectious diseases that can deplete nutrients and harm health. 
•  Basic health care should be available to every citizen as a fundamental human right. 
•  Common diseases affecting children in India include diarrhea, respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and tuberculosis. 

Safe Environment: 

•  A safe environment encompasses physical, biological, and chemical factors that can impact health. 
•  This includes access to safe drinking water, hygienic food, and measures to prevent environmental pollution and degradation. 

Nutritional Problems and Their Consequences

• India faces significant nutritional problems, particularly undernutrition, affecting pregnant women (leading to low birth weight babies) and young children (underweight and stunted).
• One-third of babies born in India have low birth weight (<2500 g).
• A considerable percentage of women are underweight.
• Other deficiencies include iron deficiency anemia, vitamin A deficiency (causing blindness), and iodine deficiency.
• Undernutrition reduces body weight, impairs children’s cognitive development and immunity, and can cause disabilities (e.g., blindness from vitamin A deficiency).
• Iodine deficiency threatens health and development, causing goitre, stillbirth, miscarriage, deaf-mutism, mental retardation, and cretinism.
• Iron deficiency impairs psychomotor and cognitive development in infants and young children, affecting scholastic performance, reducing physical activity, and increasing morbidity and mortality risks in pregnancy.
• Overnutrition leads to health problems, including toxicity, overweight, obesity, and increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension.
• India faces a "double burden of malnutrition" with both undernutrition (deficiencies) and overnutrition (diet-related chronic diseases).
• The fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) indicates 26.6% of urban men and 31.3% of urban women are overweight or obese, compared to 15.0% of rural men and 14.3% of rural women.
• Nutritional status depends on health status and sufficient food supply; poor nutrition decreases immunity, increasing infection risk.
• Infections deplete nutrient reserves (e.g., through vomiting, diarrhea), increase nutrient requirements, and, if intake is insufficient, adversely affect nutritional status, increasing further infection risk.
• Children, the elderly, and undernourished individuals are particularly vulnerable to infections.

Hygiene and Sanitation

• Food-borne illnesses like diarrhea and dysentery are major issues in developing countries, causing dehydration and death.
• Infectious and communicable diseases often result from poor environmental sanitation, household, personal, and food hygiene.
• Disease prevention and control address intrinsic (host) and extrinsic (environmental) factors.
• Intrinsic factors include age, sex, ethnicity, race, biological factors (heredity, blood groups, enzymes, cholesterol levels), organ/system functioning, social/economic characteristics (occupation, marital status, housing), and lifestyle factors (nutrition, diet, physical activity, substance use).
• Extrinsic factors include physical environment (air, water, soil, housing, climate, geography, heat, light, noise, radiation), biological environment (humans, animals, rodents, insects, plants, viruses, microorganisms), and psychosocial factors (emotional well-being, cultural values, customs, habits, beliefs, attitudes, religion, lifestyle, health services).
• Sanitation, hygiene, nutrition, and immunization are key inputs for health.
• Hygiene focuses on personal and environmental aspects, influencing health through social environment, lifestyle, behavior, and food intake.
• Poor hygiene leads to infections and infestations (e.g., worm infestations).
• Environmental hygiene includes organic and inorganic matter at domestic and community levels, covering physical factors (water, air, housing, radiation) and biological factors (plants, bacteria, viruses, insects, rodents, animals).
• Environmental health requires attention to ecological conditions to promote health and prevent disease, prioritizing safe drinking water, sanitation (especially feces disposal), and prevention of air and water pollution.
• Contaminated water causes diseases like diarrhea, worm infestations, skin and eye infections, and guinea worm.
• Food-borne illnesses occur when food contains pathogenic microorganisms, requiring the presence of organisms/toxins, sufficient numbers of pathogens, and consumption of contaminated food in adequate quantities.
• Common food-borne illnesses include diarrhea, dysentery, amoebiasis, infective hepatitis, typhoid, listeriosis, botulism, cholera, and gastroenteritis.
• Causes of food-borne illnesses include using spoiled/infected/unsafe food items (including water, spices, seasonings), improper storage, lack of insect/vermin control, contaminated equipment/utensils, inadequate cooking, storage at temperatures favorable to microorganism growth (4–60°C), improper cooling, inadequate reheating, cross-contamination, uncovered food, contaminated garnishes, and poor personal hygiene of food handlers (unclean clothes, unwashed hands, dirt under nails).

Resource Availability and Management

• Resources (possessions, materials, funds) are used to achieve goals, including money, time, space, and energy.
• Resources are rarely abundant, unequally available, and require proper management to avoid hindering goal achievement.
• Timely and efficient resource management enhances optimal utilization.

Time Management

• Time is limited, irreversible, and measured in years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds, with 24 hours daily for use.
• Effective time management is crucial, as time cannot be stopped, slowed, or regained once lost.
• Increasing demands at home, school, and work necessitate time management skills for success in various fields (agriculture, business, sports, public service, personal life).
• Time management allows adequate rest and recreation alongside work, focusing on results rather than busyness.
• Time management begins with planning, requiring a time plan (an advance schedule of activities for a given period).

Steps in time and activity planning include:

• Starting work promptly without delaying tasks.
• Establishing a daily routine for tasks (e.g., schoolwork, chores) and adhering to it.
• Prioritizing tasks, ensuring new tasks do not disrupt existing ones, and postponing optional tasks when time is limited.
• Avoiding commitment to unimportant, low-priority tasks by learning to say “no.”
• Dividing large tasks into smaller, manageable activities.
• Avoiding wasting energy/time on low-priority tasks.
• Completing tasks one at a time or scheduling them appropriately.
• Arranging start and stop times for activities, allotting appropriate time to each task.
• Creating a daily schedule including leisure time.
• Types of activities include compulsory (e.g., journeys, planting, functions), daily (e.g., cleaning, assignments, cooking, resting), and periodic (e.g., exams, health check-ups, annual events).
• Time plans vary by individual needs, goals, and routines (e.g., differing for students vs. working individuals).

Tools for effective time management include:

• “To Do” List: Identifies activities, reasons, and timelines for completion.
• Daily/Weekly Planner: Schedules tasks by hour and day.
• Long-Term Planner: Uses monthly charts for advance planning and constructive time allocation.
• Peak Load Period: Maximum workload during specific times (e.g., morning, dinner time).
• Work Curve: Tracks work against time, identifying warming-up periods, peak ability, and fatigue-related declines.
• Rest Periods/Break Periods: Unproductive interruptions, with optimal frequency and duration to avoid being too long or short.
• Work Simplification: Seeks the simplest, easiest, quickest work methods, blending time and human energy to accomplish more or reduce resource use.
  Work simplification involves changes at three levels:
  • Hand and Body Motions: Modifying motions while keeping tools/products unchanged, e.g., allowing dishes to air-dry, buying items together, improving work sequence/rhythm, developing skills, and maintaining correct posture.
  • Work, Storage Space, and Equipment: Organizing storage, rearranging equipment, planning work surfaces, and using labor-saving devices (e.g., pressure cookers, washing machines).
  • End Product:Using different raw materials (e.g., ground spices), making different products from the same materials (e.g., kulfi instead of ice-cream), or changing both materials and products (e.g., ball pen vs. ink pen).
    • Good standing posture balances head, neck, chest, and abdomen on the bony framework, minimizing muscle/ligament strain.
    • Good sitting posture is balanced, poised, and supported by the skeleton, releasing muscle/nerve strain while allowing work adjustments.

Space Management

• Space is used for activities at home, outside, and at workplaces; well-designed spaces feel spacious, while poorly managed spaces appear cramped.
• Space management involves planning, organizing, implementing, and evaluating space for functionality and aesthetic appeal.
• Well-managed spaces offer comfort and attractiveness.
• Home activities (sitting, sleeping, studying, cooking, bathing, washing, entertainment) are assigned specific areas (e.g., sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, verandah).
• Urban middle socio-economic status homes may include additional spaces (dining room, study room, entertainment room, guest room, garage, garden, terrace).

Principles of space planning include:

• Aspect: Arranging doors and windows to enjoy natural elements (sunshine, breeze, scenery).
• Prospect: Creating a pleasing external appearance using natural beauty, door/window placement, and concealing undesirable views.
• Privacy: Ensuring internal privacy (room separation via grouping, door positioning, corridors, screens, curtains) and external privacy (shading entrances with trees/creepers).
• Grouping: Positioning rooms relative to each other (e.g., dining area near kitchen, kitchen away from toilet).
• Roominess: Creating a spacious effect through built-in storage, room size/shape, furniture arrangement, and light colors.
• Furniture Requirements: Planning rooms for specific furniture, ensuring functionality and free circulation spaces.
• Sanitation: Providing ample light (natural/artificial), ventilation (natural/mechanical via windows, doors, ventilators), and sanitary conveniences (bathrooms, water closets, lavatories).
• Circulation: Enabling air circulation and independent entry to living spaces through common areas, ensuring privacy.
• Practical Considerations: Ensuring structural strength, convenience, comfort, simplicity, beauty, and future expansion without compromising stability.
• Elegance: Achieving an aesthetically appealing layout without sacrificing economy.

Textile Traditions in India

• Indian textiles are a significant heritage, with fewer museum exhibits due to fabric decay compared to bone, stone, or metal.
• Archaeological records (clothed figures, wall sculptures) and ancient literature/paintings indicate cloth-making knowledge from 20,000 years ago.
• Textiles have been essential to civilization, with ancient societies developing techniques for local raw materials and creating distinctive designs.

Historical Perspective in India

• Textile manufacture is as ancient as Indian civilization, symbolized in the Rig Veda and Upanishads as a fabric woven by gods.
• Weaving is one of the oldest arts, with fine fabrics produced early on.
• Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro reveal cotton spinning, weaving, dyeing, and embroidery traditions dating back 5000 years.
• India was the first to discover color and perfect cotton dyeing techniques, producing colorfast fabrics exported globally.
• Classical literature praises Indian fabrics’ lasting colors.
• Historical records extol Indian cotton, silk, and wool fabrics for their characteristics and designs (weaving, resist dyeing, printing, embroidery).
• Indian textiles were coveted trade items, aiding political linkages and influencing global textile industries.
• From the 15th century, India was the greatest textile exporter, with European East India Companies established for textile trade.

The Three Main Fibres

• India is the home of cotton, with cultivation and weaving known since prehistoric times.
• Spinning and weaving techniques produced extremely fine, decorated fabrics, traded globally (e.g., Harappan seals in Babylon).
• Romans and Greeks described cotton as “wool growing on trees.”
• Dacca (now Bangladesh) produced the finest mulmul khas (royal muslin), nearly invisible, with poetic names like baft-hava (woven air), abe-rawan (flowing water), and shabnam (evening dew).
• Jamdani, a figured muslin from Bengal and North India, is a fine cotton brocade.
• Brocade designs use silk, cotton, or zari (metallic yarn), transfixed between regular weaving.
• India mastered cotton dyeing, producing fast, lasting colors, revolutionizing European fashion with chintz (printed/painted cotton).
• Cotton is woven universally in India, with super-fine yarns in many areas, varying in thickness, designs, colors, and uses.

Silk:

• Silk fabrics have been made since ancient times, with silk weaving mentioned by the 3rd century BC, distinguishing Indian from Chinese silk.
• Silk weaving centers developed near kingdom capitals, holy cities, or trade hubs, with weaver migrations creating new centers.

Key silk weaving centers include:

• Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): Known for brocade (kinkhwab), meaning “golden dream,” due to its splendor, elegance, and cost.
• West Bengal: Famous for Baluchar Butedar sarees, woven like Jamdani, with plain fabric brocaded with untwisted silk, featuring unique pallav designs (epics, royal courts, domestic/travel scenes, mango motifs).
• Gujarat: Produces kinkhwabs in Bharuch and Cambay, and Ashavali sarees (Ahmedabad) with rich gold/silver brocade borders/pallavs, incorporating human, animal, and bird motifs.
• Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu): Famous for brocade sarees with bird/animal motifs and rich pallavs, using dark colors (red, purple, orange, yellow, green, blue).
• Paithan (Maharashtra): Known for silk sarees with gold inlay borders/motifs, using tapestry weave for closely woven golden fabrics with patterns (butas, tree of life, buds, floral borders).
• Other centers include Surat, Ahmedabad, Agra, Delhi, Burhanpur, Tiruchirapalli, and Thanjavur for zari brocade weaving.
• Tapestry weave uses discontinuous weft yarns, allowing multicolored patterns, appearing identical on both sides.

Wool:

• Wool is associated with colder regions (Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal hills, Northeast states, Punjab, Rajasthan, Central/West India).
• Specialty hair from mountain goats, rabbits, and camels is also used.
• Earliest references mention fine hair from mountain goats and deer-like animals.
• Kashmiri literature (11th century) confirms multicolored woolen fabric weaving.
• Persian influence (14th century) led to shawl production using complex tapestry weave with intricate patterns, made from pashmina and shahtus (mountain goat hair).
• Mughal emperors promoted Kashmiri shawls, which became globally famous and major exports by the 18th century.
• Kashmiri shawl designs, including the paisley (mango) motif, reflect nature’s beauty.
• Akbar introduced Jamawar shawls, large and suitable for garments (jama), seen in Mughal paintings.
• Himachal Pradesh shawls (e.g., Kullu valley) feature angular geometrical motifs in horizontal/vertical bands, including pattu and dohru wraps.
• Shawl weaving has gained importance in Amritsar, Ludhiana (Punjab), Uttarakhand, and Gujarat.

Dyeing

• Dyeing in India has a long history, using natural sources (plants, insects, minerals) before the 19th century.
• Analysis of old samples confirms deep knowledge of dye chemistry and application, producing colorfast fabrics.

Resist Dyed Fabrics:

• Resist dyeing, the oldest designing method, prevents dye absorption in specific areas, retaining the original color for patterns.
• Resist materials include thread, fabric pieces, clay, or wax.
• Tie and dye is the most common resist method, using thread to tie areas before dyeing, retaining the ground color in tied areas.
• Multiple dyeing cycles (light to dark colors) create complex patterns.
• Tie and dye holds ritualistic significance (e.g., white, yellow, red tie-dyed threads for Hindu ceremonies, auspicious for marriages).

Fabric Tie and Dye: Patterns created post-weaving (e.g., bandhani, chunari, laheria), with designs like bandhej (dots) or laheria (diagonal stripes), primarily in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Yarn Tie and Dye: Complex process producing Ikat fabrics by tie-dyeing warp, weft, or both yarns before weaving, creating patterns during weaving.

• Types include single Ikat (warp or weft dyed), combined Ikat (separate patterns), and double Ikat (unified pattern).
• Ikat artisans require dyeing and weaving expertise, calculating yarn amounts and ensuring precise alignment for designs.
• Gujarat’s Patola (double Ikat silk sarees from Patan) features geometrical, floral, bird, animal, and dancing doll designs in red, yellow, green, black, and white, blending colors smoothly.
• Orissa’s Bandha (single/combined Ikat in cotton/silk) has softer, curvilinear designs with extra weft yarn for small figurative patterns.
• Pochampalli and Chirala (Andhra Pradesh) produce cotton Ikat Telia Rumals (square fabrics), used as lungis, shoulder cloths, loincloths, dupattas, or veils.

Embroidery

• Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric surfaces with silk, cotton, gold, or silver threads using needles, known as “painting with a needle.”
• Practiced anciently across India at all socio-economic levels, on various fabrics (coarse cotton to fine silks/pashminas), using diverse materials (threads, cowrie shells, mirrors, glass, beads, gems, coins).
• Used for personal clothing, household items, home decoration, religious offerings, and animal/cattle decorations.
• Traditionally a homely handicraft by women during leisure, some embroideries became commercial trade items.

Phulkari:

• Punjab’s embroidery, meaning “flower work” or “bed of flowers,” also called bagh (garden).
• Done on coarse cotton (khaddar) with untwisted silk floss (pat), covering the fabric in baghs, visible only on the reverse.
• A domestic craft by household women, often for wedding ceremonies, made by grandmothers for granddaughters or granddaughters-in-law.

Kasuti:

• Karnataka’s embroidery, derived from Persian “kashida” (embroidery), a subtle domestic craft by women.
• Threads follow the fabric weave on silk with fine silk strands, blending with the background.
• Designs are inspired by temple architecture.

Kantha:

• Bengal’s embroidery on 3–4 layers of old cotton sarees/dhotis, using small running stitches like quilting through all layers.
• Originated from darning to strengthen worn areas, now filling drawn shapes.
• Typically white-based with multicolored threads from old saree borders, used for comb cases, wallets, shawls, and ritualistic items.

Kashida:

• General term for Kashmir’s embroidery, primarily suzani and zalakdozi, on woolen fabrics (shawls, pherans, namdas).
• Suzani uses flat stitches, uniform on both sides, with silk threads in multiple colors, copying multicolored weaving patterns and Chinese styles (satin, long/short stitch).
• Zalakdozi is chain stitch with an “ari” (hook), originally on namdas, now on various materials, a commercial activity by men.
• Embroidery often corrects weaving defects, with embroiderers called rafugars (darners).

Chikankari:

• Uttar Pradesh’s commercial embroidery, centered in Lucknow, originally on white fabric with white thread.
• Techniques include shadow work (embroidering on the wrong side), net-like surfaces (tightening fabric yarns), and raised patterns (knotting stitches resembling rice/millet grains).
• Modern designs incorporate zari threads, beads, and shiny discs (sitara), adapting to fashion trends.

Gujarat Embroidery:

• Rich tradition from nomadic tribes, blending diverse cultural designs/techniques.
• Used for doorways (torans, pachipattis), walls (chaklas, chandrawas), garments, and cattle/horse/elephant coverings, with styles specific to tribes (Mahajan, Rabari, Mochibharat, Kanbibharat, Sindhi).
• Bright, loud colors predominate.
• Appliqué work involves sewing cut fabric pieces on plain backgrounds for household items.
• Bead work in Saurashtra and Kutch interlaces colored beads for coverlets, hangings, purses, etc.
• Rajasthan’s similar tribal embroidery varies by tribe and occasion.

Chamba Rumals:

• From Chamba (Himachal Pradesh), used to cover gift trays for dignitaries, depicting mythological scenes like Pahadi paintings.
• Made with running stitch outlines and darn-stitch filling, appearing identical on both sides.

Conclusion

• Indian textiles are globally recognized for beauty and craftsmanship, enriched by invasions, migrations, and cultural synthesis.
• Specific regions have age-long traditions in cotton, silk, wool, spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing, and ornamentation.
• Production centers have evolved distinct color, design, and ornamentation styles for specific products.
• Textiles remain vital for religious/social rites, contemporary usage, product diversification, and mass production.
• Most Indian textile traditions survive, enriched by new designs.
• Government, non-government organizations, and academic institutions work to preserve, revive, and contemporize these traditions.