Boys and Girls
Extra Questions
Short Answer Questions
Question 1: What are the main features of household work?
Answer: Household work is invisible and unpaid work. It is often de-valued. It is physically demanding and very strenuous. It is also very time consuming.
Question 2: How are girls and boys brought up in most of the societies?
Answer: The kind of toys given to boys is cars; bikes etc. and the ones given to girls are dolls. Girls are expected to be soft-spoken and well mannered. Boys are expected to be tough and assertive. Girls are expected to do all household work.
Question 3: Write a note on the scenario in Madhya Pradesh in the 1960s.
Answer: From class VI girls and boys went to different schools. The girls’ school had a courtyard where they played in seclusion. They often went to home in groups for security reasons. The playground of the boys’ school was attached to the school. They used to idle around or try new tricks with their bicycles, after school hours.
Very Short Answer Type
Question 1: Define identity.
Answer: It is a sense of self-awareness of who one is. A person can have many identities. For example, a person can be a girl, sister and a teacher.
Question 2: What is the meaning of care-giving?
Answer: It refers to a range of tasks that are related to looking after and nurturing. It involves giving both physical and moral support.
Question 3: Give examples of household work that involve bending and lifting.
Answer: Washing clothes, cleaning, sweeping and picking up loads.
Question 4: Define the term de-value.
Answer: It is a feeling that a person gets if he/she does not get recognition for the work done/effort put in by him/her.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1: Write a note on government’s efforts to ensure equality for women.
Answer: Equality is an important principle in our Constitution. But in reality, inequality on the basis of gender exists. The government is therefore committed to understanding the reasons for it and taking steps to solve it. For example, it understands that the responsibility of home and child-care falls on women. This therefore has an impact on whether girls can attend school, whether women can go for work or what kind of work they can take up. As a remedy to the situation, the government has therefore set up anganwadis or child-care centres in many villages in the country. It has also passed laws that make it mandatory for organizations that have more than 30 women employees, to provide crèche facilities. This helps women to take up employment outside home and girls to attend schools.
Question 2: Write a note on growing up in Samoa.
Answer: The salient features of the Samoan society as per research reports are as under
- Children did not go to school. They learnt household work and things like how to take care of other children from older children and adults.
- As soon as babies learnt to walk, their parents/ other adults did not look after them. Both boys and girls as young as five years old looked after their siblings.
- As soon as the boys were almost nine years old, they joined the older boys in fishing and other outdoor activities like planting coconuts.
- Till they reached teenage, girls had to continue looking after children or do errands for adults. They had much more freedom once they entered teenage. After the age of around fourteen years, they went out for fishing, worked in the plantations, learnt how to weave baskets etc.
- Cooking was done in special cooking houses where boys did most of the work and girls helped with the preparations.
Question 3: Write a note on domestic workers.
Answer: Many homes especially in urban areas, employ domestic workers. They do a lot of work including washing utensils, clothes, sweeping, mopping, cooking etc. Most of them are women, though sometimes even young boys and girls are employed for such work. The wages are low since domestic work does not have much value. But their life is very challenging. A domestic worker’s day may start as early as 5 in the morning and end at midnight! In spite of taking so much effort, the domestic workers are generally treated in a very inhumane way by their employers.