Motions of the Earth — Social Science STD 6 — Question

The Gram Sabha meeting begins with the Panchayat President (who is also called the Sarpanch) and the members of the Panchayat (the Panchs) presenting a plan on repairing the road that connects the village to the main highway. After this, the discussion moves to the subject of water and water shortages.
A villager called Tijia begins the meeting by saying, “The water problem in Hardas has become very acute. The handpump water has gone well below the point up to which the ground has been drilled. We hardly get any water in the taps. Women have to go to the Suru river which is 3 k.m. away to get water.” One of the members suggests piping water from the Suru and making an overhead tank in the village to increase the supply. But the others think that this will be expensive. It’s better, they feel, to deepen the handpumps and clean the wells for this season. Tijia says, “This is not enough. We need to do something more permanent as groundwater levels seem to be going down every year. We’re using more water than is seeping into the ground.”
Another member, Anwar then tells everyone that he has seen ways of conserving water and recharging (refilling) it in a village in Maharashtra where he’d once gone to visit his brother. It was called watershed development and he had heard that the government gave money for this work.
In his brother’s village people had planted trees, constructed check-dams and tanks. Everyone thought this was an interesting idea and the Gram Panchayat was asked to find out about it in detail.

1. What is a Gram Sabha?
2. In the meeting of the Gram Sabha so far what are the problems that are being discussed? What sort of solutions are being suggested?

What is the locational extent of India? State the effect of East-West extent of India on time.

What does Jawahar Lai Nehru say in his book, ‘Discovery of India’ about unity in diversity?

Sometimes people make prejudiced comments in our presence. We are often not in a position to do anything about this because it is difficult to say something right then and there. Divide the class into groups and each group discuss what they could do in one of the following situations:

1. A friend begins to tease a classmate because he is poor.
2. You are watching TV with your family and one of them makes a prejudicial comment about a particular religious community.
3. Children in your class refuse to share their food with a particular person because they think she is dirty.
4. Someone tells you a joke that makes fun of a community because of their accent.
5. Some boys make remarks about girls not being able to play games as well as them.

Discuss in class what the different groups have suggested for the above situations, and also talk about the problems that can come up when raising the issue.

How is distance measured? Define a scale.

The Western Coastal Plain with the Eastern Coastal Plain.

How do these people organise their work?

Describe the working conditions of the workers in factories.

Describe the three levels of Panchayats.

Which activities are considered low?