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

Q1: Who were working on street? What activities were in action on the street/ roads?
Ans:

• A vegetable vendor.
• Stall of flowers and garments.
• Newspaper vendor.
• Cobbler under a tree.
• Roadside barber.
• Cart pusher with all kinds of plastic bottles, boxes, hairpins, clips, etc.
• Cycle trolly, carrying vegetables.

Activities:

• Plying of buses.
• Plying of autorickshaw with school children.
• Rickshaw stand with severed rickshaws to take people to the nearby markets.

Q2: What is being done now for the hawkers/street vendors?
Ans: The work of hawkers/street vendors has been recognised as important for the low income purchasers.

• Previously hawkers were not allowed to sell their articles on the streets.
• Now hawking zones have been suggested for the hawkers to move freely.
• They have been made members of the committees which think about their welfare.

Q3: Describe the new garments showroom.
Ans: From the dentist clinic, the author and his cousin went to new garments showroom, because the author wanted to buy some clothes.

• The showroom had three floors.
• Each floor had different kinds/types of clothes.
• The third floor had clothes for girls.

Q4: Describe the working conditions of the workers in factories.
Ans: Working conditions for the workers in factories:

• They have to work for 12 hours a day.
• They have to work in day and night shifts on the machines. One worker for first 12 hours, another for next 12 hours on the same machine.
• If they protest in respect of working condition or wages, they are dismissed from the job.
• They are not well-treated.

Q5: How do these people organise their work?
Ans: These people organise their work in the following manner:

• They are not employed. Hence they have to organise their own work in the following manner:
• They plan how much to purchase, where and how to set up their shops.
• Their shops are temporary structures:
• Sometimes some boards
• Papers spread over discarded boxes
• Canvas sheets hung on four poles
• Their own casts
• Plastic sheets spread on the pavements.
• These people have no security.
• Police can dismantle their shops in a while.
• Vendors sell their goods (food items), already prepared at home like snacks, foods, chholas, etc.

Q6: Describe the scene at the market place.
Ans:

• The market was about to open.
• People had already collected to buy things because it was a festival season.
• There were rows and rows of shops:
• They sold sweets, toys, clothes, footwear, utensils, electronic goods etc.
• A dentist’s clinic was also there at one end of the market.

Q7: Describe the scene in the buses which go to factory areas.
Ans: Scene in the buses:

• The buses were crowded.
• At every bus stop more and more people boarded the bus and the crowd went on increasing in the bus.
• The writer and her cousin stood in a comer so that they could not be squashed.
• They felt surprise how people travelled daily in such a crowded state.

Q8: Who are salespersons?
Ans: Salespersons are personnel of an industrial company and their responsibilities are to take orders of industrial goods from shopkeepers and gather payments from them and then transport their orders to specific destinations on time.

Q9: What is a call centre?
Ans: Call centres are big centralized offices where the employees handle the problems/issues faced by customers regarding goods and services they have bought. In recent years, they have emerged as the major source of employment in urban areas.

Q10: What do you mean by the provident fund?
Ans: Provident fund refers to lifetime savings of an individual and it is obtained along with interests after retirement.

Q11: What are factories?
Ans: Factories refer to buildings where the industrial production of goods is carried out. It contains workshops where workforces are involved in different types of work interchange of certain remuneration. The works generally involve using various machines or instruments to provide finished products within a short period. Example— In a garment factory, different types of clothes are manufactured. The workers use sewing machines to stitch pieces of cloth within a short period.

Q12: What is one basic thing that a municipal corporation does?
Ans:  A municipal corporation is a sole body that is authorized to decide the working days of a market. In other words, it decides on which days of a week a market is supposed to remain either open or closed. It means it also decides the holidays of a market.

Q13: Which international organization deals with labour issues?
Ans: A United Nations body, International Labour Organisation deals with the issues faced by labourers.

Q14: Which threat does a temporary employee feel?
Ans: A temporary employee always feels threatened by job insecurity, ill-treatment, and chances of getting fired by the employer.

Q15: How does a job play in someone’s life?
Ans: Jobs play an important role in someone’s life in the following ways:

• Jobs help an individual to become financially secure. 
• It gives one a sense of independence, self-confidence and is the key to achieve life goals. 
• Apart from sustaining oneself, jobs help people to sustain the dependent members of their families. From necessities to luxuries, every demand of people can only be fulfilled by the earnings that come from jobs. 
• Not only at individual levels but also jobs help in the betterment of a nation’s economy as a whole. A country is considered rich when its national income increases. 
• Also, people who earn pay a certain amount of money as tax to the government. With these taxes, the government introduces many welfare programmes which help in the social and economic upliftment of all the people living in a nation. 

Q16: What do you mean by a businessperson?
Ans: Businesspersons are people who own shops or companies and manage those on their own. They can also be called employers as they often employ people to work in their respective companies as supervisors and helpers. In other words, business persons are those who are not employed but generate employment themselves. For example – if you own a saree shop and have appointed some workers in it, you are a businessperson.

Q17: How does a marketing manager influence the market?
Ans: Marketing managers are employees who influence the market by supervising or managing the salespersons of a company. Their tasks in a company involve meeting salespersons of different regions, keeping track of their progress, helping them with the problems they face, and encouraging them to increase confidence to carry out their work perfectly. In short, marketing managers of a company are solely responsible for planning the sales in a whole city.