Exercise 1.1
Observe your surroundings and identify a change that has taken place in your locality over the past five years. It could be related to transport, housing, education, technology, or the environment. Discuss in groups: → What was the situation earlier? → What has changed? → What might have caused this change? → How has it affected people’s lives? Prepare a short report and present it in class.
The book prints no answer for this
NCERT publishes no answers for this textbook, so there is nothing in the book to check this working against. It has also not yet been read through by hand.
A worked example — this is only a sample, so that you can see the shape. No book can supply your locality, so your own report will name a different place and a different change.
Example taken: a village where a mud track was replaced by a tarred road.What was the situation earlier?
Example taken: a village where a mud track was replaced by a tarred road.What was the situation earlier?
The village was joined to the main road by a mud track that turned to slush in the monsoon.
No bus came in. People walked to the town or used a bullock cart.
What has changed?
An all-weather tarred road now reaches the village, and a bus stops twice a day.
Two shops and a small repair garage have opened near the bus stop.
What might have caused this change?
A government road-building programme, together with demand from villagers who carry vegetables to the town market.
The chapter reminds you that roads are planned and maintained by public authorities — so look for a public decision behind a change like this.
How has it affected people's lives?
Children reach the high school in half the time.
Farmers sell produce fresh instead of losing part of it on the way — an economic effect.
More people now travel out for work and stay away for months — a social effect.
Dust and traffic near the road have increased — an environmental effect. Not everyone gains equally.
What a good answer must contain
A change you can actually show, with the place named.
Evidence, not memory alone: photographs, an elder's or shopkeeper's account, an old bill beside a new one, a school register.
The cause stated as a likely reason, not a certainty, unless you can prove it.
Effects on different groups of people, including anyone who lost out.
The chapter's own method throughout: careful observation, evidence and logical reasoning.