UNDERSTANDING SECTORS OF INDIAN ECONOMY
An economy is best understood when we study its components or sectors. Sectoral classification can be done on the basis of several criteria. In this chapter, three types of classifications are discussed: primary/secondary/tertiary; organised/ unorganised; and public/private. You can create a discussion about these types by taking examples familiar to the students and relate them to their daily life. It is important to emphasise the changing roles of sectors. This can be highlighted further by drawing the attention of the students to the rapid growth of service sector. While elaborating on the ideas provided in the chapter, the students may need to be familiarised with a few fundamental concepts such as Gross Domestic Product, Employment, etc. Since the students may find this difficult to understand, it is necessary to explain to them through examples. Several activities and exercises are suggested in the chapter to help the students understand how a person’s activity could be placed — whether in the primary, secondary or tertiary, organised or unorganised, and public or private sector. You may encourage the students to talk to various working people around them (such as shop owners, casual workers, vegetable vendors, workshop mechanics, domestic workers, etc.) to know more about how they live and work. Based on such information, the students can be encouraged to develop their own classification of economic activities.
Another important issue to be highlighted is the problems caused by the changes in the roles of sectors. The chapter has taken the example of unemployment and what the government can do to solve it. The declining importance of agriculture and the growing importance of industry and services should be related to the experience of the children by taking more examples that they may observe in their day-to-day life. Information derived from the media could be used for this purpose. You may encourage the students to bring important cuttings and stories from newspapers, which could be prominently displayed in storyboards, and encourage the class to discuss these issues. While discussing the unorganised sector, the key issue of protecting the workers engaged in the sector should be highlighted. You may also encourage the students to visit persons and enterprises in the unorganised sector and get the first-hand experience from real-life situations.
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK