Under a government programme aimed at alleviating poverty, the people of a village get wage work to lay a rural road and to build a drinking water facility. Which option correctly names such programmes and states what they aim at?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Employment generation programmes; they provide jobs and also services such as rural roads
Many government programmes fight poverty by giving people wage work. They are called employment generation programmes. They give employment and also services such as rural drinking water and rural roads.
Option (1) Social security schemes; they aim at paying pension and gratuity to rural workers — Incorrect. Social security means benefits like pension and gratuity, not wage work on roads.
Option (2) Employment generation programmes; they provide jobs and also services such as rural roads — Correct. The road and the water facility are the services.
Option (3) Outsourcing schemes; they aim at handing piecemeal government work to small rural firms — Incorrect. Outsourcing is a firm handing work to outside units or specialists. It is not a poverty programme.
Option (4) Disinvestment programmes; they aim at selling government assets to raise rural incomes — Incorrect. Disinvestment means selling part of the government’s share in public enterprises. It creates no wage work.
NCERT (2026-27): “6.9 Government and Employment Generation … Many programmes that the governments implement, aimed at alleviating poverty, are through employment generation. They are also known as employment generation programmes. All these programmes aim at providing not only employment but also services in areas such as primary health, primary education, rural drinking water, nutrition, assistance for people to buy income and employment generating assets, development of community assets by generating wage employment, construction of houses and sanitation, assistance for constructing houses, laying of rural roads, development of wastelands/ degraded lands.” |