Long Questions: Urban Livelihoods | NCERT Summary: UPSC PDF Download

Q1: What are the other benefits of a government job along with salary?
Ans: A government job comes with many benefits except for the salary.
Such benefits are as follows:

• Old-age savings: In the form of a provident fund, a part of an individual’s salary is kept with the government. These are the lifetime savings and it is obtained along with interests after retirement. 
• Holidays: A government employee is also eligible to have off from work on Sundays as well as national holidays. Apart from these declared holidays, he/she can also take leave on a certain number of days which are part of her annual leave.
• Medical facilities: Government employees are also paid a certain amount of medical expenses of their own as well as their family members. Besides these, they also get paid leaves on account of ill health.
• Job security: Unlike casual workers, they are the permanent workers of the government. They have no chances of getting fired and hence enjoy job security. 

Q2: Why is there always a threat to the lives of tribes?
Ans: The reasons behind the threat to tribal lives are as follows:

• Loss of livelihood: As the population in a country increases, there is a need to increase the available resources to sustain them. Hence, to build more settlements, forested areas are cleared. The tribes reside mainly in forests and depend on natural resources for their livelihood. So, cutting down trees and forests is an immediate threat to their survival. 
• Loss of culture: They are often asked by the government to shift to a new place. It results in losing their original lands and homes. They lose their own distinguishable culture and nothing can be more threatful than this.

Q3: Where does Nirmala work and what does she do there? What are her working conditions?
Ans:

• Nirmala works in a garment factory.
• The factory stitches summer clothes to be sent to USA, UK, Germany and Netherlands.

Working conditions for Nirmala:

• She works as tailor on a sewing machine.
• She works for long hours (nearly 12 hours) from December to April. Her working time begins at 9 a.m. and finishes at 10 p.m., sometimes even late.
• She works six days a week.
• Her wages are Rs. 80A per day for eight hours and Rs. 40/- extra for working late.
• Her job is not permanent. During lean period (from June to November) she remains out of job and has to work elsewhere.

Q4: Give an account of Sudha’s duties.
Ans: Sudha’s Duties:

• Sudha works in a company of the Government as marketing manager. Her office is surrounded by tall buildings.
• She is marketing manager in the company manufacturing biscuits.
• She supervises 50 sales persons. They get orders and payments from shopkeepers.
• She has divided the city into six zones/regions.
• She works for six days.
• She meets each salesperson once a week.
• She checks their progress and discusses and sorts out their problems.
• She pirns sales for the whole city. She often travels and works late in the evenings.

Q5: From the chapter ‘Urban Livelihood’ fill in the given data.
Ans:

Q6: Explain the living conditions of the laborers living in the slum areas of the cities.
Ans: The living condition of the labours that live in the slum areas of the city is as follows:

• Most of the labourers live in harsh and unhealthy conditions in slum areas that lack basic facilities and security.
• As most of the laborers don’t have permanent jobs and high income, they mostly do not own permanent residences. 
• They do not have a permanent shelter and sleep on pavements or in paid night shelters run by the Municipal Corporation.
• Sometimes, they somehow manage to set up small congested homes on the street. 
• There are spaces where several workers leave their belongings during the day and go to work and cook meals at night. 
• Many laborers also take loans from the local tea and cigarette shops which offer safety for their extra money and tools but in an unorganised way.

Q7: What happened at the dentist’s clinic?
Ans:

• The cousin of the author alongwith him went to the dentist for check up of her teeth.
• They waited for their turn.
• When the turn came the dentist checked up her teeth. One tooth had a cavity.
• The dentist asked them to come next day as the cavity had to be filled.
• The cousin felt sorry that she allowed her teeth to be decayed because of her carelessness. How it would be painful to get the cavity filled!

Q8: Why labourers gather at the labour chowk? What do you do as labourers?
Ans: The labourers gather at the labour chowk for finding jobs on daily wage basis.
These labourers do the following works:

• They act as helpers to masons.
• They dig at construction sites.
• They lift loads.
• They unload trucks in the market.
• They dig pipelines and telephone cables.
• They also build roads.
• These labourers are called casual workers.

Q9: Differentiate between permanent versus casual jobs.
Ans: The differences between permanent and casual jobs are: