Class 8 Civics Chapter 9 Notes - Public Facilities

Facts that Matter

• Public facilities relate to our basic needs such as water, health, education etc.
• The government is expected to play a major role in providing public facilities to all.
• Water is the basic need of the people. It is essential for life and for good health.
• Safe drinking water can prevent several water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, etc. Unfortunately India has the largest number of cases of these diseases.
• Children below the age of five reportedly die everyday because of these diseases.
• It means safe drinking water is not available to all.
• Our constitution recognises the Right to Water as being a part of the Right to Life under Article 21. It means that there should be universal access to water. But in reality it does not happen so.
• Not only water but other public facilities such as healthcare, electricity, public transport, schools and colleges also need to be provided for all.
• The chief feature of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by several people. For example, if an area is supplied with electricity it means that the entire people of that area can use its benefit.
• One of the most important functions of the government is to ensure that public facilities are made available to everyone.
• The government gets money for public facilities from the taxes collected from the people.
• The government is empowered to collect these taxes and use them for such programmes. For example, to supply water the government has to incur costs in pumping water, carrying it over long distances, laying down pipes for distribution, treating the water for impurities, and finally, collecting and treating waste water. It meets these expenses partly from the various taxes that it collects and partly by charging a price for water. This price is set so that most people can afford a certain minimum amount of water for daily use.
• Although public facilities should be made available to all, in reality we find their shortage. As mentioned above water is a public facility of great importance. But the tragedy is that it is not available to all.
• The poor are the worst sufferers because they don’t have money to purchase water from private companies.
• Crisis of water becomes acute during the summer months in several cities of the country.
• The shortage in municipal water is increasingly being filled by an expansion of private companies who are selling water for profit.
• A shortage of municipal water is often taken as a sign of failure of the government.
• Our constitution recognizes many of the public facilities as being a part of the Right to Life. Now it is the government’s responsibility to see that these rights are protected so that everyone can lead a good life.

Words that Matter

• Public facilities. They are associated with our basic needs such as water, electricity, public transport, etc.
• Universal access. Universal access in achieved when everyone has physical access to a good condition or can also afford it.
• Sanitation. Provision of facilities for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces.
• Company. A company is a form of business set up by people or by the government.