NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 13 Community participation, festivals and community programmes — THINK ABOUT IT

Almost every part of India has a tradition of people working together without payment. Ask your grandparents and your neighbours — you will find at least three or four in your own area. Here are real examples from across the country to help you recognise yours.

Sample answer for your own area: “In our locality, all the families of our lane clean the lane and whitewash the boundary wall together before Diwali. In the rainy season the young people of our colony clear the drains so that water does not collect. Every year our resident welfare association organises a blood donation camp and a tree plantation drive, and last summer everyone contributed to set up a water pot and a shaded stand for birds and stray animals. Nobody is paid for any of it.”

Yes — the work that the people themselves do at a festival is non-economic. Nobody pays the neighbours who string the lights, sweep the courtyard, draw the rangoli, cook the prasad or serve the food. They do it out of exactly the feelings page 186 names — gratitude, love, care and respect.

Why the unpaid half still holds great value. Five reasons, and you can write any three of them:

• It builds a community. People who normally only nod at each other spend a week working shoulder to shoulder. Neighbours become friends, and that helps long after the festival is over.
• It passes on culture. Children learn the songs, the rangoli patterns, the recipes and the rituals by doing them beside their elders — something no book or class can replace.
• It includes everybody. A community meal is shared by rich and poor alike. The chapter’s own example of this is the langar, which “serve[s] food to every visitor for free”.
• It teaches organisation and responsibility. Collecting contributions, dividing tasks, keeping accounts, managing a crowd and cleaning up afterwards is real training in working together.
• It gives joy and belonging. These are not small things. Page 193 says non-economic activities “contribute to social welfare, personal wellbeing and enhance the overall quality of life” — this is precisely what a festival does.

Every school runs more of these than students realise. Look back at your school year and your locality, and list them; then write down what you actually saw — not what you think you should say.

Common school and locality programmes

Sample answer — what I observed: “Our school held a Swachhata Abhiyan in the week of 2 October. Students of Classes 6 to 8, our teachers, the school staff and about twenty parents cleaned the school ground, the lane outside and the bus stop, and we painted two dustbins green and blue for wet and dry waste. Four things surprised me. First, how much rubbish two hours of work removed — nineteen sacks from a lane we walk down every day without noticing. Second, how much faster the work went once we divided into small groups with one task each, instead of everybody doing everything. Third, that our principal and the sweeper worked side by side with the same broom, and nobody thought it odd — which taught me more about the dignity of work than any lesson. Fourth, that shopkeepers who had watched us in the morning had swept the front of their own shops by the evening, without being asked. A month later the lane was still cleaner than before, though not as clean as on that day, so we decided to repeat it every second month.”