Q.1  Discuss all these perceptions of ideal women that prevail in our society. Do you agree with any of these? If not what is your image of an ideal woman?

It is good to see that women are showing their talent in every walk of life. It is not right to agree with anyone perception of women, shown through the figures, along. In my view, an ideal woman is that who has the quality of managing both housework and work outside the house. Of course, this needs equal cooperation of man.

Let’s Do IT

Textbook Page No. 42

Q.2 A ‘time use survey’ was conducted in six states of our country. It shows that an average woman works every day for a little over seven and half hours while an average man works for six and a half hour. Yet the work done by men is more visible because most of their work leads to generation of income. Generating work, but the bulk of their work is household related. This work remain unpaid and invisible.

Daily time use (hours : Minutes)

You can conduct a similar time use survey in your own household. Observe all the adult male and female members of your family for one week. Every day note down the number of hours each of them spends on the following activities : income generating activity (working at the office or shop or fatory or field etc.), household related activity (cooking, cleaning, washing , fetching water,looking after children or elders etc.), reading and recreation, talking/gossiping, self- care, taking rest or sleeping. If necessary make new categories. Add up the time taken on each activity for a week and calculate daily average for each activity for each member. Do women work more in your family as well?

Student do themselves.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 44

Q.3  Could you think of some reasons why women’s representation is so low in India? Do you think America’s and Europe have achieved a satisfactory level of women’s representation?

(i) The women’s literacy rate is very low and if some are educated, they are  not politically motivated. They and their male family members think, politicsis not the profession of women. Political parties are also not giving tickets to women candidates to fight election in proportion to their population.

(ii) No, neither America’s nor Europe have achieved a satisfactory level of women’s representation. Because in Americas there are only 20.2 per cent and in Europe only 19.6 per cent women in the national parliament. These percentage are not proportional to their  population in the respective countries.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 43                    

Q.4 Can you identify your district on the map? What is the child sex ratio in it? How is it difference from others with a different colour?

Students, do themselves.

[Hint: First, locate your state and then identify your district. For finding child sex ratio, take the help of legends shown on the map.]

Q.5  Identify the states where most districts have child sex ratio below 850.

Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana are the states where most districts have child sex ratio below 850.

Q.6 Compare this map with the poster on the next page. How do the two of them tell us bout the same issue?

Both the map and poster are concerned about the decreasing trend of child sex ratio.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 45

Q.7  If casteism and communalism are bad, what makes feminism a good thing? Why don’t we oppose all those who divide the society on any lines- caste, religion or gender?

Feminism is not a bad thing. It believes in equal rights and opportunities  for men and women. Social divisions like communalism and casteism usually divide the society and enhances inequality while feminism talks about equality. Enhancing women power will make our society more strong.

Let’s Read The Cartoon

Q.8 This cartoon offers an under-standing of why he Women’s Reservation Bill has not been passed in the Parliament. Do you agree with  this reading.

Yes, the cartoon reflects that our legislature is nan- dominated. Every gate to the parliament is well narded by men who do not wish women to enter the couse. But, they pretend to show that very soon they are going to pass a bill regarding women’s reservation in the house.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 46                                             

Q.9   I am not religious. Why should I bother about communalism and secularism?

If you are not religious it means you don’t believe God. Communalism is a social phenomena based on the barbaric attitude of some religious communities. This attitudes and activities follows it harm the social system and the relations among the different religious communities.

So, you  should also bother about communalism to make peace in the society.

Secularism means there is no state religion instead the state respects all religions equally. So, whether you are religious or not, you should also bother about the secularism so that there will not be any favour or discrimination against any religion. It will maintain a healthy atmosphere in the country.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 47

Q.10  Often crack jokes about people from one religion. Does that make me communal?

Religion is a faith of a person or a group of people in a particular way of prayer to a specific supernatural power. This faith is very much based on personal and community grounds. So, you should not make jokes about the people of any religion. It may result communal tension in the society and you will be responsible.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 51

Q.11 I don’t care what my caste is. Why are we discussing all this in the textbook? Are we not promoting casteism by talking about caste?

India is a multiligual religious and caste based country. It is known fact that there are people of different castes living together in India society. So reality cannot be hidden. This is the reason why there is a discussion on caste in this  textbook. We cannot promote casteism only by talking about casts.

Q.12 Now you don’t like it ! Didn’t you tell me that wherever there is domination, we should discuss it in political science? Will caste disappear if we  keep mum about it?

(i) Caste has become a very strong phenomenon in India politics. That is why whenever and wherever there is the domination of one caste over  others, we discuss it in political science.

(ii) Caste will not disappear from the India politics and four society merely by keeping mum about it. Because it has become a part and parcel of our political and society system.

Intext Question

Textbook Page No. 53

Q.13 Do you think that political leaders are right to treat people belonging to a caste as ‘vote banks’

I think that political leaders are not right in treating people belonging to a caste as vote banks. The reason is that making a vote bank based on caste will divide the velocity into different groups by dirty game of politicians and political parties during elections to win the election. It can create tension among different castes as a result there may be blood sheds on the occasion of polling.

Exercises 

Q.14  Mention different aspects of life in which women are discriminated or disadvantaged in Inida.

(i)  In the field of education where women still has literacy rate of only 54 percent.

(ii) Women’s proportion among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very low. So, women are also discriminated the field of employment.

(iii) Women as a gender itself are highly discriminated which is evident from their sex- ratio which has fallen to 850 to 800 in some parts of India.

(iv) In the political life, women’s representation is very low in proportion to their population.

Q.15 State different forms of communal politics with one example each.

(i) The most common expression of communal politics is in everyday beliefs which involve religious prejudices, stereotype of religious  communities, etc.

(ii) Another form of communal politics is the quest form political dominance of one’s own religious community.

(iii) Political mobilization on communal lines is another frequent form of communal politics.

(iv)  Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly for of communal violence, riots and massacre.

Q.16  State how caste in equalities are still continuing in India.

(i)  Still the people use to establish marriage relationship in their own  caste or community.

(ii) People tend to caste vote in favour of candidate belonging to their community.

(iii) Despite constitutional provisions, untouchability has not ended completely.

(iv) Some of the older aspects of caste have persisted even today. Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt.

(v)  Caste continues to be closely linked to economic status

(vi) It has been politicized now.

So, it can be said that caste inequalities are still continuing in India.

Q.17 State two reasons to say that caste alone cannot determine election results in India.

(i) Voters from some of the constituencies may have more than one candidates from their community or caste.

(ii) Parliamentary constituency in our country has a clear majority of one single  caste.

Q.18  What is the status of women’s representation in India’s legislative bodies?

(i) The percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has never  reached even 10 percent of its total strength.

(ii)  The share of women in the state assemblies is less than 5 percent.

Q.19 Mention any two constitu-tional provisions that make India a secular state.

(i) The constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess practice and propagate any religion or not to follow any.

(ii) The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.

Q.20  When we speak of gender divisions, we usually refer to :

(a) Biological difference between men and women.

(b) Unequal roles assigned by the society to men and women.

(c) Unequal child sex ratio

(d) Absence of voting rights for women in democracies.

(b) Unequal roles assigned by the society to men and women.

Q.21     In India seats are reserved for women in

(a) LokSabha

(b) State legislative assemblies

(c) Cabinets

(d) Panchayati Raj bodies

(d) Panchayati Raj bodies

Q.9 Consider the following state-ments on the meaning of communal politics. Communal politics is based on the belief that :

(a) One religion is superior to that of others

(b) People belonging to different religions can happily live together as equal citizens.

(c) Followers of a particular religion constitute one community.

(d) State power cannot be used to establish the domination of one religious  groupover other?

Which of the statements is /are correct?

(a) A, B, C and D

(b) A, B, and D

(c) A and C

(d) B and D

(c) A and C

Q.10 Which among the following statements about India’s Constitution is wrong? It

(a) Prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion

(b) Gives official status to one religion

(c) Provides to all individual freedom to profess are religion

(d) Ensures equality of citizens within religious communities.

(b) Gives official status to one religion.

Q.11 Social divisions based on _________ are peculiar to India.

Gender , religion and caste.

Q.12    Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the List

(b)  1- B, 2- A, 3- D, 4 – C

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

Q.1   Gender division means biological difference between men and women. Do you agree?

No, it refers to the unequal role assigned to men and women by the society.

Q.2  What do you mean by sexual division of labour?

It is a system in which all work inside the home is either done by the women of the family, or organized by them through the domestic workers.

Q.3  What has been the traditional division of labour between men and women?

In most of the families, women did all work inside the home and men did work outside the home.

Q.4  What is the result of trade tional division of labour between men and women?

The result of this division of labour is that women have been confined to the private domain of family, while the public domain has been monopolized by men.

Q.5  What do you mean by feminist movement?

More radical women’s movement aim at equality in personal and family life as well. These movements are called feminist movements.

Q.6  What helped to improve women’s role in public life?

Political expression of gender division and political mobilization throughout the world on this question, helped to improve women’s role in public life.

Q.7  Name few countries where participation of women in public life is very high.

In Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, the participation of women in public life is very high.

Q.8  Why did the makers of our Constitution choose India to be a secular state?

Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country. The makers of our Constitution were aware of this. This is why they chose the model of a secular state.

Q.9  What is the official approach of the government of India about the religion?

(i)  There is no official religion of the India state.

(ii) The constitution provides to all individual and communities freedom to profess practice and propagate any religion or not to follow any.

Q.10  What does our Constitution do to ensure equality within religious communities?

(i) The Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion.

(ii) It also allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure equality within religious communities. For example, it bans  untouchability.

Q.11   What do you mean by Scheduled Tribes or STs?

The Scheduled Tribes, often referred to as adivasis, include those communities that led a self- sufficient life usually in hill and forest and did not interact much with the rest of the society.