NCERT Book Class 6 Social Science The Value of Work PDF Download

Chapter 13: The Value of Work

When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.

- Swami Vivekananda

The Big Questions

1. What are the different types of activities that people engage in?
2. What is their contribution to our everyday lives?

Anu and Kabir were playing in the park when they saw their neighbour, Geeta Aunty, getting out of a taxi. She was returning home from work and was in her uniform. A pilot in the Indian Air Force, she is the pride of the whole town.

[Figure: Anu and Kabir talking to Geeta Aunty, who is in her pilot uniform, See in your textbook]

Kabir, Aunty's uniform looks a lot like the one I saw at your house yesterday, but the colour is different.

That uniform on the hanger belongs to my grandfather. He retired from the Border Security Force and now spends his time providing free Geography classes to the neighbourhood kids ... tending to our vegetable garden, and ... running errands for the home.

My parents run a shop that sells uniforms and other ready-made garments. Appa leaves early in the morning and Maa joins him in the shop after we leave for school.

Maa is usually back by the time we return home from school. She also contributes to a voluntary group that teaches stitching to the women in the community.

Do you remember my elder brother Rohan? You met him when he came to pick me up from school. He is a software engineer and works in a company that makes computer applications. On the weekends he volunteers to teach computer skills to those who have joined the youth development programme of the nearby college.

Wow, Anu, everyone around us does so many things every day!

Let's Explore

What activities did the people in Anu's and Kabir's story engage in? Mention them in the table given below:

Different types of activities, like the ones discussed above, are divided into two groups or categories: economic activities and non-economic activities.

Economic activities are those that involve money or are performed in exchange for money or money's worth for the parties involved. For example, a business person selling school bags in the market, a farmer selling produce in the market, a lawyer arguing a case and earning a fee, a truck driver transporting goods from one place to another, workers employed in a car manufacturing factory, etc.

Teacher's Note

Notice that economic activities must involve money or something of monetary value going between people. If your grandfather teaches Geography for free, that is not an economic activity even though it is work. But if he were paid to teach, it would become economic. The key difference is the exchange of money or money's worth.

Market: A place where people engage in the exchange of goods and services. People may exchange goods and services for other goods and services but in most markets these are exchanged for money.

Money's worth: The monetary value that a person places on an object based on the benefit that they derive from it.

Fee: A payment made to a person or organisation in exchange for professional advice or services. For example, a fee paid to a doctor and a lawyer.

Key Points

• Economic activities are any work done in exchange for money or something of value, like a shopkeeper selling goods or a lawyer providing legal services.
• Non-economic activities are work done without any payment or exchange of money, such as a grandparent teaching children for free or doing household chores.
• The same task can be economic or non-economic depending on whether money or money's worth is exchanged between the people involved.

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