Question

People as a Resource
'People as Resource' is a way of referring to a country's working people in terms of their existing
productive skills and abilities. Looking at the population from this productive aspect emphasises its
ability to contribute to the creation of the Gross National Product. Like other resources, population
also is a resource a 'human resource'.
This is the positive side of a large population that is often overlooked when we look only at the negative
side, considering only the problems of providing the population with food, education and access to
health facilities. When the existing human resource
' is further developed by becoming more educated
and healthy, we call it "human capital formation that adds to the productive power of the country just
like 'physical capital formation'.
26.1. How is human resource diferent from other resources like land and physical capital? 383;
26.2. How does education and health add to the productive power of human resource?​

Answer 1

People as Resources’ is a way of referring to a country’s working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Looking at the population from this productive aspect emphasises its ability to contribute to the creation of the Gross National Product. Like other resources population also is a resource — a ‘human resource’. This is the positive side of a large population that is often overlooked when we look only at the negative side, considering only the problems of providing the population with food, education and access to health facilities. When the existing ‘human resource’ is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy, we call it ‘human capital formation’ that adds to the productive power of the country just like ‘physical capital formation’.

When we look from the standpoint of economic development of nation then population explosion is an asset and not a liability. The population becomes human capital when there is an investment in the form of education, training and medical care. Investment in human capital yields a return just like an investment in physical capital. Education skilled and healthier people generate higher productivity and income.