Struggles for Equality Extra Questions Chapter 9 Class 7 Civics
Chapter 9 Struggles for Equality Class 7 Civics Extra Questions will be helpful in knowing the important concepts inside the chapter properly. Extra Questions for Class 7 that includes VSAQs, SAQs, LAQs which can be used to improve your marks in the exams.
Chapter 9 Struggles for Equality Very Short Answer Questions (VSAQs):
1. Why people living in India are so unequal?
Answer
Because of poverty and the lack of resource.
2. Why does a Dalit girl drop out of school in large number?
Answer
Because of poverty, social discrimination and lack of good quality school facilities.
3. Indian constitution recognises all Indians as _________________ before the law.
Answer
Equal.
4. Why some people are well known and respected in some communities?
Answer
Because they treat all persons with dignity.
5. What is Fisherworker’s cooperatives?
Answer
Fisherworker’s cooperatives an organisation that fights for the rights of displaced forest dwellers of the Satpura forest in Madhya Pradesh.
6. What was the demand of Tawa Matsya Sangh?
Answer
To continue fishing for their livelihood.
7. Why old Tehri town and many villages near that river were submerged?
Answer
Because of construction of Tawa dam across the river.
8. How a writer and singer can be active in the fight against democracy?
Answer
A writer through their stories and a singer by their songs can inspire us and make us believe strongly in an issue and can influence our efforts to correct the situation.
9. Why dams are created?
Answer
A dam is built across a river at sites where one can collect a lot of water. This forms a reservoir and as the water collects, it submerges vast areas of land displacing thousands of people living in those areas.
10. What are the purposes for which the TMS gave loans?
Answer
Repair of nets and buying of new nets.
Chapter 9 Struggles for Equality Short Answer Questions (SAQs):
1. Write a short note on the impact of Tawa Matsya Sangh.
Answer
The government, as a response to the protests by the TMS, created a committee to assess the issue. The committee recommended that the villagers should be given the fishing rights for their livelihood. Consequently, in 1996, the Madhya Pradesh government decided to give the displaced people the rights for the reservoir. Two months later a five-year lease agreement was signed and on January 2, 1997, the villagers from 33 villages started their new year with their first catch.
2. What do you mean by “Constitution-the living document’?
Answer
The term ‘Constitution – a living document’ means that it is a document that does not exist merely on paper but in reality also. It has the ability to change the lives of the people in a better way, as it did for the fish workers in TMS. The provisions of the Constitution regarding equality were actually implemented as a result of their united protests.
3. Are the different bases of inequality related or independent? Discuss.
Answer
There is a strong interrelationship between the bases of discrimination and inequality. For example, the issues of poverty, lack of dignity and respect for some communities are not independent issues. They exist together in such a manner that it is very difficult to identify where one aspect of inequality ends and the other starts. For example, the dropping out of the school of the Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim girls is a combined outcome of poverty, social discrimination and lack of good schooling facilities. This is an ‘all-in-one’ example of inequality which shows the inequality on the basis of financial status, caste, religion and gender.
4. What are the limitations of dams?
Answer
When dams are built or forest areas are declared sanctuaries for animals, thousands of people are displaced. Many villages are uprooted and people are forced to go and build new homes, start new lives elsewhere. Most of these people are poor. In urban areas too, bastis in which poor people live are often uprooted. Some of them are relocated to areas outside the city. Their work as well as their children’s schooling is severely disrupted.
5. Why was the Tawa Matsya Sangh formed?
Answer
Building of the Tawa dam resulted in the submerging of large areas of forest and agricultural land. Some of the displaced forest dwellers settled around the reservoir and found a new source of livelihood by fishing. The rights of fishing in the Tawa reservoir were given to private contractors by the government in the year 1994. These contractors drove away from the local people in order to get cheap labour from outside. At this point, the villagers united and decided to set up an organisation for protecting their rights. This led to the formation of the Tawa Matsya Sangh (TMS).
6. What are the factors that make people’s lives in India highly unequal?
Answer
The factors that make people’s lives in India highly unequal are:
• Poverty
• Lack of resources
• Discrimination on the basis of person’s relgion, caste and sex.
• Lack of good quality school facilities for the poor and the underprivileged.
• Lack of dignity and respect for certain communities and groups.
Chapter 9 Struggles for Equality Long Answer Questions (LAQs):
1. Describe inequality on the basis of financial status.
Answer
The following have an adverse impact on the poor people and hence are examples of inequality based on financial status:
• The privatisation of hospitals and neglect of government hospitals: Because of the privatisation and the bad condition of government hospitals, poor people do not have access to good health services.
• High demand for branded goods: The small sellers who sell loose items and non-branded goods are not able to compete with those selling branded goods because they cannot afford the costs involved in branding i.e. packaging, advertising, etc.
• Dependence on powerful people for money: Small farmers due to lack of money, are dependent on local traders for money for the agricultural inputs as well as for family exigencies. They also have to yield to the irrational demands and conditions of the traders. Similarly, the maidservants (due to their poverty), have to bear insults and ill-treatment by their employers.
2. Other than financial status, describe the grounds of inequality that exist in society.
Answer
The following are the other grounds for inequality, apart from financial status:
• Inequality on the basis of religion: Some people are not willing to lease out their apartment to people of a particular religion in spite of their ability to pay rent. Some employers are also against employing people of a particular religion.
• Inequality on the basis of caste: The Dalit community is always victimised and oppressed. Shri Om Prakash Valmiki, a Dalit writer has elaborated this in his autobiography ‘Joothan’. In this, he has mentioned that he was forced by his teachers to sweep his schoolyard just because he was a Dalit boy.
• Inequality on the basis of gender: The work done by women is devalued. It is not given any recognition and they are also paid less than their male counterparts. The discrimination is because of the social and cultural background we are brought up in.