EN हिं

NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 12 –182End-of-chapter exercise — Questions, activities and projects

Book page 181 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
On your way to school, you and your friends notice that a water pipe is leaking. A lot of water is being wasted on account of the leak. What would you and your friends do in such a situation?
Answer

Report it the same day, to the right office, with the exact location. The chapter’s own instruction on page 177 is that “if they notice a water leakage in a street, reporting it promptly will prevent further wastage of precious water.”

What we would do, step by step:

  1. Note the exact place. Street name, the nearest house or shop number, the nearest landmark, and the pole or manhole number if there is one. A complaint that says “near the market” cannot be acted on; one that says “opposite House No. 42, Gandhi Road, near the blue water tank” can.
  2. Take a photograph, or make a quick note of the time and how fast the water is running. A photograph makes a complaint impossible to ignore.
  3. Do not try to repair it ourselves, and do not touch the pipe. A mains pipe is under pressure, and there may be an electric cable in the same trench. Keep small children away.
  4. Report it at once. Tell a teacher on reaching school and ask for a complaint to be made from the school, and also tell an adult at home. Then use whichever of these is available: the municipal helpline or complaint number printed on the water bill; the city’s CRM grievance system, exactly like “CRM — GRIEVANCES” in Fig. 12.4 on page 178; the ward office or the ward councillor; the water works department counter.
  5. Note the complaint number the office gives, and follow up after two or three days if nothing has happened.
  6. Tell the neighbours nearby, so that more than one complaint reaches the same office — a repeated complaint is attended to faster.
Why hurrying matters: a leak does three kinds of damage at once. It wastes treated drinking water that the city paid to clean and pump. It softens and breaks the road above it, which then costs far more to rebuild. And once the pressure inside the pipe drops, dirty water can be sucked in through the crack, which can make people ill. A leak reported on the first morning is a small repair; the same leak reported after a month is a dug-up road.
Sample complaint you can copy: “Water leakage from the main pipeline in front of House No. 42, Gandhi Road, Ward 7, near the blue overhead tank. Noticed on 12 August at about 8 a.m., water flowing continuously across the road. Please repair urgently. — Students of Class 6, Government Middle School, Gandhi Road.”
Q2.
Invite a member of an urban local body near you to your class. Discuss with them their role and responsibilities. Prepare a set of questions to ask them so that the meeting is fruitful.
Answer

This is an activity, so the marks are in the preparation. Do it in three stages.

1. Before the visit

  • Find out who represents your school’s ward — the ward councillor, or a member of the ward committee, or an officer of the municipal body.
  • Write a short invitation letter from the class, signed by the class teacher, giving the date, the time, the duration (say 40 minutes) and the topic.
  • Read this chapter again so that nobody asks something the book has already answered.
  • Divide the questions among students, so that everyone asks one and nobody repeats.
  • Appoint two students to take notes and one to thank the guest at the end.

2. A set of questions that will actually make the meeting fruitful

ThemeQuestions to ask
Their roleWhich ward do you represent, and how many people live in it? How were you elected, and for how long is your term? What exactly is your work in a normal week?
The body itselfIs ours a Municipal Corporation, a Municipal Council or a Nagar Panchayat, and why? How many wards does it have? Who is the Mayor or Chairperson, and what does the Commissioner do?
ServicesWhich services does our body provide? How is our garbage collected and where does it finally go? Where does our drinking water come from?
MoneyWhere does the body’s money come from, and which is the biggest source? Which services are paid for and which are free? How is it decided which ward gets what?
ComplaintsHow should a citizen make a complaint? How long does a repair usually take? What is the most common complaint you receive?
Problems and plansWhat is the hardest problem in our ward? What has improved in the last five years? What plan do you have for our area next?
UsWhat can school students do to help our ward? Can students attend a ward committee meeting? What one habit of ours makes your work hardest?

3. After the visit

  • Write the answers up as a one-page class report and put it on the notice board.
  • Send a short thank-you letter.
  • Pick one thing you learnt that the class can act on — and act on it.
Two rules for the day: ask about work, not politics — the chapter is about how a body functions, not about parties or personalities; and ask open questions (“How does…?”, “Why does…?”) rather than ones that can be answered with a yes or a no.
Q3.
Discuss with adult members of your family and neighbourhood, and make a list of their expectations from the urban local bodies.
Answer

Go and ask, then group the answers. Speak to at least six or seven adults who use the city differently — a homemaker, a shopkeeper, a senior citizen, a daily-wage worker, an auto or taxi driver, a person with a disability, and a young working woman. Ask each the same simple question: “What is the one thing you most want our municipal body to do?”

Sample answer — a list collected in an ordinary Indian town, grouped by theme:

ThemeWhat people said they expect
WaterClean drinking water, at a fixed time every day, at good pressure; leaking pipes repaired quickly; a fair water bill
CleanlinessDaily door-to-door garbage collection; no roadside heaps; clean and usable public toilets; drains cleared before the monsoon
Roads and lightingPot-hole-free roads; footpaths free of encroachment; street lights that work; safe pedestrian crossings near schools
Health and safetyFogging and drain treatment against mosquitoes; a working ambulance and fire service; control of stray animals
Common spacesA clean park with drinking water and benches, a playground for children, trees along the road, a community hall people can afford
Services and recordsBirth, death and marriage certificates without delay; licences renewed on time; simple, honest procedures
How they are treatedA complaint that is acknowledged and actually acted on; information about how money is spent; ward meetings that ordinary people can attend; equal attention to every locality, rich or poor

What you will notice in your own list — say this in the class discussion, because it is the real learning:

  • Almost every expectation is about a basic service, not a grand project.
  • What people ask for depends on who they are. A shopkeeper wants parking and clean frontage; a senior citizen wants footpaths and a park bench; a mother wants water timing and a safe crossing.
  • Many expectations are the citizens’ duties turned around — people want clean streets, but streets stay clean only if nobody litters.
  • Several items on the list are things the ward committee, not the whole corporation, can settle.
Do it properly: write the person’s role (not their name), what they expect, and one sentence of their own words. A quotation makes a project report come alive — and it teaches you to listen before you write.
Q4.
Make a list of characteristics of a good urban local body.
Answer

Judge an urban local body the way the chapter judges one — by whether the citizens have a real say, and whether the basic services actually work. Ten characteristics, in the order that matters.

CharacteristicWhat it looks like in practice
1. Truly representativeElections held on time in every ward; seats reserved for women and for disadvantaged sections actually filled; councillors present in their wards, not only at election time
2. Decentralised down to the wardWard committees that meet, take up local problems and are open to residents — the body does not decide everything from one central office
3. ResponsiveA complaint is registered, given a number, acted on within a stated time, and the citizen is told what happened
4. Efficient in basic servicesWater daily, garbage collected daily, drains cleared before the rains, street lights working, roads repaired
5. Transparent and accountableThe budget and the list of works are published; the accounts are audited; anyone may ask what a contract cost
6. Financially soundTaxes and user charges are fair, collected properly and spent on the city; the body does not depend entirely on grants
7. Fair to every localityThe same standard of water, waste collection and lighting in a poor colony as in a wealthy one
8. Inclusive by designRamps and usable footpaths, safe public toilets for women, drinking water in public places, spaces for street vendors, playgrounds for children
9. Forward-planning and greenPlans for the city’s growth; waste processed rather than dumped; trees, parks and water bodies protected; preparation for floods and heat
10. ParticipatoryCitizens are invited into cleanliness drives, health camps and ward meetings — the body treats residents as partners, not merely as taxpayers
Why ‘participatory’ is last on the list but first in importance: characteristics 1 to 9 describe what a body does. The tenth decides whether the other nine survive. Indore did not become India’s cleanest city because its Corporation was clever, but because its Corporation and its citizens worked at the same job. As page 177 puts it, the citizens “must show care and concern for their area (remember, this is a participatory democracy)”.
Turn it into a project: take your own city and give it a mark out of 10 on these ten points, with one piece of evidence for each. That is a far better answer than a list learnt by heart — and you will remember it for years.
Q5.
What are the similarities and differences between the Panchayati Raj system in rural areas and the urban local bodies?
Answer

Both are local self-government; they differ in the number of tiers, the size of the unit and the kind of work. Fig. 12.2 on page 175 puts the whole comparison in a single picture — one pyramid, one ‘Local Government’ block, two branches growing out of it.

Similarities

  • Same place in the system. Both are the third level of Indian government, below the Union and the State, and both work under laws made by the State.
  • Both are decentralised self-government. Local communities “have a direct say on how their areas are managed or the issues they face”.
  • Both are elected by the people of the area, for a fixed term, through elections conducted by the State Election Commission.
  • Both reserve seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and for women — not less than one-third.
  • Both have a small unit at the base — the village with its Gram Sabha, the ward with its Ward Committee.
  • Both do the same kinds of thing: local services, sanitation, water, records, implementing government schemes, collecting local taxes and fines, and planning for the area’s development.
  • Both pair elected members with appointed officials — Sarpanch with Panchayat Secretary, Mayor with Municipal Commissioner.
  • Both depend on citizens doing their part.

Differences

Panchayati Raj Institutions (rural)Urban Local Bodies (urban)
Where they workVillages and the countrysideCities and towns
Tiers in Fig. 12.2Zila Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Gram Panchayat, Gram SabhaMunicipal Corporation / Municipal Council / City Council (Nagar Panchayat), Ward Committee, People of the Ward
How the top body is decidedAlways a Zila Panchayat for the districtBy population — Corporation above 10 lakhs, Council between 1 and 10 lakhs, Nagar Panchayat below that
Basic unitThe villageThe ward — a part of a city
Direct democracyPresent — the Gram Sabha is a meeting of all adult votersNot possible on that scale; participation runs through wards and councillors
HeadSarpanch or Pradhan of the Gram PanchayatMayor of a Corporation; Chairperson of a Council or Nagar Panchayat
Chief officialPanchayat Secretary, with the Patwari for land recordsMunicipal Commissioner, with a large department-wise staff
Typical workAgriculture, village roads, drinking water, village school and health centre, common landPiped water and sewerage, city solid waste, street lighting, fire services, building permissions, licences and hoardings, traffic-related civic work
MoneySmaller own income; depends more on State and Central grants and scheme fundsMuch larger own income — property tax, water charges, licence fees; big corporations may even borrow
Constitutional basis73rd Constitutional Amendment, 1992 (Part IX)74th Constitutional Amendment, 1992 (Part IXA)
Why the two look different but mean the same thing: the size of the unit changes what is possible. In a village of 700 people, everyone can sit in one place, so the Gram Sabha can take decisions directly. In a city of 20 lakh, that is impossible — so the city is divided into wards and works through elected councillors. What does not change is the principle: the people of an area choose those who govern it, and can hold them to account. Sameer says it best on page 180 — the city system “sounds like our village Panchayat, only bigger”.
Tip for the exam: answer this in two labelled halves — Similarities and Differences — and give at least four points under each. Draw the two branches of Fig. 12.2 as a small sketch if the question carries five marks or more; a correct diagram usually earns a mark on its own.
Was this helpful? Report an error