For which of the following social reasons is the city preferred over village?
(A) Decline of common resources in villages
(B) Opportunity for earning cash income in cities
(C) Lack of sufficient work opportunity in villages
(D) Relative Anonymity in cities
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (D) only
(A) Decline of common resources in villages Incorrect. Common property resources such as ponds, forests and grazing lands helped poor people survive in the village even when they owned little land. Their decline adds to the hardship of the poor and pushes them towards the city, so it is an economic reason, not a social one.
(B) Opportunity for earning cash income in cities Incorrect. Opportunities for earning cash income are limited in the villages, and people must buy in the market much of what they once got free. Moving to earn cash is a matter of livelihood, an economic reason.
(C) Lack of sufficient work opportunity in villages Incorrect. Those who cannot find work, or enough work, in the rural areas go to the city in search of work. This too is an economic reason for migration.
(D) Relative Anonymity in cities Correct. The city may also be preferred for social reasons, especially the relative anonymity it offers. In a village everyone knows everyone’s caste, while city life means dealing with strangers. This gives Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes some protection from daily humiliation, and lets poorer members of dominant rural groups take up low-status work they could not do in their village.
Note: NTA dropped this question in its Final Answer Key. The original NTA paper printed statements (B), (C) and (D) as ‘Opportunity for earning cash income’, ‘Sufficient work opportunity’ and ‘Relative Anonymity’, and the options as (1) ‘(A), (B) and (D) only’, (2) ‘(B), (C) and (D) only’, (3) ‘(A), (B), (C) and (D)’ and (4) ‘(A), (C) and (D) only’. As per NCERT (2025-26), relative anonymity is the only social reason; the other three are economic reasons, so none of the printed options was correct. To give the question one correct answer, statements (B), (C) and (D) have been worded in full as above, and the options have been changed so that Option (4) reads ‘(D) only’.
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.…” |