Answers to all "Questions, activities and projects" of Chapter 13, The Value of Work (NCERT Class 6 Social Science, Exploring Society: India and Beyond, 2026-27): economic and non-economic activities, kinds of economic activities, community service, and ways of payment. All 4 questions are answered, with the key answer highlighted.
How are economic activities different from non-economic activities?
Solution
Economic activities
Non-economic activities
Done to earn money (income) or produce goods and services for sale or exchange
Done out of love, care, duty, service or for pleasure, not for money
Add to the income of the family and the country
Do not earn money, though they have great value
Examples: a farmer selling vegetables, a teacher teaching in a school, a doctor treating patients, a shopkeeper selling goods
Examples: a mother cooking for her family, a person helping a neighbour, volunteering at a temple or gurdwara, children playing, a grandfather teaching his grandchild
The same activity can be either: a cook working in a restaurant is doing an economic activity, while a parent cooking at home is doing a non-economic one.
Economic activities are done to earn money or produce goods and services for sale; non-economic activities are done out of love, care, duty or service, without payment. The same task (like cooking) can be either.
What kind of economic activities do people engage in? Illustrate with examples.
Solution
Producing things from nature: farming, fishing, cattle rearing, mining (e.g. a farmer growing wheat, a fisherman catching fish).
Making goods: working in factories or as artisans (e.g. a weaver making cloth, a potter, a carpenter, a car factory worker).
Providing services: teaching, treating patients, transporting goods, banking, repairing, selling in shops (e.g. a teacher, doctor, bus driver, shopkeeper, electrician).
Self-employment and business: running a shop, a small tea stall or a tailoring unit.
Jobs for wages or salaries: daily-wage labourers, office workers, government employees.
Producing from nature (farming, fishing, mining), making goods (weaving, carpentry, factory work), providing services (teaching, medicine, transport, shops), running businesses, and working for wages or salaries.
There is great value attached to people who are engaged in community service activities. Comment on this statement.
Solution
I agree. Community service, such as volunteering in disaster relief, teaching poor children, cleaning public places, serving food in langars, donating blood or caring for the sick, is done without expecting money, but it:
helps people in need and fills gaps that the government or markets cannot fill;
builds trust, unity and kindness in society;
improves shared spaces and resources, like clean parks and safe water;
gives the volunteer satisfaction, respect and new skills.
India has a long tradition of sevā (selfless service), for example in gurdwaras, temples, and during floods or the COVID-19 pandemic, when ordinary people cooked food and helped strangers. So such people are valued highly, even though their work is not measured in money.
Yes: community service helps those in need, builds unity and trust, improves shared spaces and reflects India's tradition of sevā; its value is great even though it earns no money.
