Class 9 Economics Chapter 1 Question Answers - Economics

Q1: What are the dimensions of food security?
Ans:
Food security has following dimensions:

• Availability of food: It means food production within the country, food imports and the previous years stock stored in government granaries.
• Accessibility: It means food is within reach of every person.
• Affordability: It implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one’s dietary needs.

Q2: How is food security affected during a calamity?
Ans:

• During a natural calamity like earthquake, drought, flood, etc. there is widespread failure of crops causing famine.
• Decrease in total production of food grains creates a shortage of food in the affected areas.
• Due to shortage of food, the prices go up. At the high prices, some people cannot afford to buy food. If such calamity happens in a widespread area or is stretched over a longer time, it may cause a situation of starvation.

Q3: ‘Even Today, there are several places in different parts of the country which are still food in-secure”. Support the statement.
Ans:
Although the Bengal famine has never been repeated in the history of India, it is disturbing to note that even today, there are places in different parts of the country which are still food insecure:

• Kalahandi and Kashipur in Odisha where famine like conditions have been existing for many years and where some starvation deaths have also been reported.
• Starvation deaths are also reported in Baran district of Rajasthan, Palamau district of Jharkhand and many other remote areas during the recent years. Food security is therefore needed in a country to ensure food to all at all times.

Q4: Who are food insecure? Describe in brief.
Ans:

• A large section of people suffer from food and nutrition insecurity in India. However, the worst affected groups are landless people with little or no land to depend upon, traditional artisans, providers of traditional services, petty self-employed workers and beggars.
• In the urban areas, those engaged in casual labour market and seasonal activities are more prone to food insecurity.
• The SCs, STs and some sections of the OBCs who have either poor land base or very low land productivity are prone to food insecurity.
• The people affected by natural disasters, who have to migrate to other areas in search of work, are also among the most food insecure people.
• A large proportion of pregnant and nursing mothers and children under the age of 5 years constitute an important segment of the food insecure population

Q5: What is Antyodaya Anna Yojana? Mention its role in ensuring food security in the country.
Ans:
The Antyodaya Anna Yojana is an important poverty alleviation programme started by the central government in December 2000. This scheme plays an important role in ensuring food security in the country:

• Under this scheme one crore of the poorest among the BPL families covered, under the targeted public distribution system were identified.
• Twenty five kgs of food grains were made available to each eligible family at a highly subsidized rate of ₹ 2 per kg for wheat and ₹3 per kg for rice. This quantity has been enhanced from 25 kgs to 35 kgs with effect from April 2002.
• The scheme has been further expanded twice by additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and in August 2004. With this increase, 2 crore families have been covered under the AAY.

Q6: What is the Sampuma Grameen Rozgar Yojana?
Ans:

• The Sampuma Grameen Rozgar Yojana is a scheme launched by the Government of India to attain the objective of providing gainful employment for the rural poor.
• This scheme was launched on 25 September 2001 by merging the provisions of Employment Assurance Scheme and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana.
• The programme is self-targeting in nature and aims to provide employment and food to people in rural areas who live below the poverty line. This scheme greatly contributes to food security by increasing the income of the poor.

Q7: Why is buffer stock created by the government?
Ans:

• The main objective of the buffer stock is to distribute the food grains in the deficit areas and among the poor strata of society at a price lower than the market price.
• Buffer stock also helps resolved the problem of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.
• Buffer stock also saves farmers from ups and downs of the market. Under this, farmers are paid a pre-announced price for their crops. This price is declared by the government before the sowing season to provide incentives to the farmers.

Q8: What is rationing? When was it introduced in India? Why?
Ans:

• The term rationing is often used for controlled distribution of scarce goods and resources by the government. It restricts how much people are allowed to buy or consume a particular resource for the specified duration.
• The introduction of rationing in India dates back to the 1940s against the backdrop of the Bengal famine. The rationing system was revived in the wake of an acute food shortage during the 1960s, prior to the Green Revolution.

In the wake of the high incidence of poverty levels, as reported by the NSSO in the mid-1970s, three important food intervention programmes were introduced:

• Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains which was in existence earlier but strengthened thereafter.
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) was introduced in 1975 on an experimental basis.
• Food-For-Work (FFW) was introduced in 1977-78. Over the years, several new programmes have been launched and some have been restructured with the growing experience of administering the programmes.

Q9: Why has the public distribution system been criticised? Give reasons.
Ans:

The public distribution system was started by the government for the distribution of food among the poorer sections of society through fair price shops. This was done to ensure food security in the country. But in the recent years, the PDS has stopped functioning well. There are several factors that have led to its decline.

• PDS dealers are indulged in malpractices like diverting the grains to open market to get better margin, selling poor quality grains at ration shops, irregular opening of the shops, etc.
• Earlier every family, poor and non-poor had a ration card with a fixed quota of items such as rice, wheat, sugar, etc. These were sold at the same low price to every family.
• The three types of cards and the range of prices that are seen today did not exist. A large number of families could buy food grains from the rations shops subject to a fixed quota. These included low income families whose incomes were marginally higher than the below poverty line families.
• Now, with TPDS of three different prices, any family above the poverty line get very little discount at the ration shop.
• The price for APL family is almost as high as open market price. So, there is little incentive for them to buy these items from the ration shop.