Read the passage below and answer the following question.
The rapid growth in urbanisation shows that the town or city has been acting as a magnet for the rural population. People go to urban areas in search of work. Rural-to-urban migration has also been accelerated by the continuous decline of common property resources like ponds, forests and grazing lands. The city may also be preferred for social reasons, specially the relative anonymity it offers. It allows the poorer sections of the socially dominant rural groups to engage in low status work that they would not be able to do in the village. For the socially oppressed groups like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, this may offer some partial protection from the daily humiliation they may suffer in the village where everyone knows their caste identity. Mass transit and mass communication are bridging the gap between rural and urban areas. Today the rural areas are more closely integrated into the consumer market. Agriculture used to be by far the largest contributor of the country's total economic production. Today it contributes only about one-fourth of the gross domestic product. Rural people are increasingly engaged in non-farm rural occupations like transport services, business enterprises or craft manufacturing. If they are close enough, then they may travel daily to the nearest urban centre to work while continuing to live in the village.
Which one of the following is not a common property resource?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Agricultural land
Option (1) Ponds — A common property resource (Incorrect). Ponds are among the common property resources named in the passage, along with forests and grazing lands. Such common resources enabled poor people to survive in the villages although they owned little or no land.
Option (2) Forests — A common property resource (Incorrect). Forests gave the village poor fuel, fodder and supplementary food free of cost. As forests are cut down or turned into private property, the poor have to buy these things in the market.
Option (3) Grazing land — A common property resource (Incorrect). Grazing land is the shared pasture of the village, where everyone could graze cattle. Its decline is one of the reasons that push the rural poor to the city.
Option (4) Agricultural land — Not a common property resource (Correct). Agricultural land is owned by the families who cultivate it. Common property resources are the very ones the poor could use even though they owned little or no land of their own.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.6 Rural-Urban Differences … Considered from an urban point of view, the rapid growth in urbanisation shows that the town or city has been acting as a magnet for the rural population. Those who cannot find work (or sufficient work) in the rural areas go to the city in search of work. This flow of rural-to-urban migration has also been accelerated by the continuous decline of common property resources like ponds, forests and grazing lands. These common resources enabled poor people to survive in the villages although they owned little or no land. Now, these resources have been turned into private property, or they are exhausted (Ponds may run dry or no longer provide enough fish; forests may have been cut down and have vanished…). If people no longer have access to these resources, but on the other hand have to buy many things in the market that they used to get free (like fuel, fodder or supplementary food items), then their hardship increases. This hardship is worsened by the fact that opportunities for earning cash income are limited in the villages. Sometimes the city may also be preferred for social reasons, specially the relative anonymity it offers. The fact that urban life involves interaction with strangers can be an advantage for different reasons. For the socially oppressed groups like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, this may offer some partial protection from the daily humiliation they may suffer in the village where everyone knows their caste identity. The anonymity of the city also allows the poorer sections of the socially dominant rural groups to engage in low status work that they would not be able to do in the village. All these reasons make the city an attractive destination for the villagers.…” |