Public Facilities Definitions, Equations and Examples

Public Facilities

The rich countries, excluding countries of the Middle East and certain other small countries, are generally called developed countries.

People also think of ideals such as security, respect for others, equal treatment, freedom, etc. as criteria for development.

There is more to a nation’s development than just the average income of its people.

1. Money cannot buy all the goods and services required to live well and hence income by itself is not a completely adequate indicator of material goods and services that citizens are able to use.
2. Money cannot buy a pollution-free environment or unadulterated medicines, it can only buy you a house in a better community.
3. Money may also not be able to protect people from infectious diseases unless mass prevention and precautions are in practice.

The cheapest and best way to ensure the provision of goods and services to people is to provide them collectively. It will be cheaper to have collective security for the whole locality or for each house to have its own security. However, the same cannot be said for basic amenities like education, public health services, medical facilities, food, water etc.

Some people are not willing to study while many other children want to study. Many people believe that the government should open schools and provide other facilities so that all children have a chance to study. Despite that, children, particularly girls, are not able to go to high school because the government/society has not provided adequate facilities.

Important
Kerala has a low Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) because it has the adequate provision of basic health and educational facilities.

Example 1.
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:
Lets look at the figures of Per Capita Net State Domestic Product at Current Prices for 2016-17. Let us ignore what this complicated term exactly means. Roughly, we can take it to be the per capita income of the state. We find that of the three, Haryana has the highest per capita State Per Capita Income (in Rs.) Haryana 1,80,174, Kerala 1,63,475 and Bihar 34,409 income and Bihar is at the bottom.

This means that, on an average, a person in Haryana earned Rs. 1,80,174 in one year whereas, on an average, a person in Bihar earned only around Rs. 34,409. In Kerala, out of 1000 children born, 10 died before completing one year of age but in Haryana the proportion of children dying within one year of birth was 30, which is two times more than that of Kerala. On the other hand, the per capita income of Haryana is more than that of Kerala as shown in Table.

(A) Which of the following states are most developed on the basis of per capita income?
(a) Kerala
(b) Haryana
(c) Bihar
(d) All three are equally developed because income does not decide development.
Answer:
(b) Haryana

Explanation: On average, a person in Haryana earned Rs. 1,80,174 in one year, which is greater than Kerala. Hence, on the basis of this, Haryana is the most developed.

(B) Which of the following states have richer citizens?
(a) Kerala
(b) Haryana
(c) Bihar
(d) All three are equal.
Answer:
(b) Haryana

Explanation: It’s per capita income is the highest, which means it has richer people than average.

(C) What is per capita income?
Answer:
Per capita income is the average income of a citizen in a state/city/country.

(D) Assertion (A): Haryana is more developed because it has more number of children dying within one year of birth.
Reason (R): People in Haryana are not as educated.
(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
(b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
(c) (A) is correct but (R) is wrong.
(d) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.
Answer:
(d) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.

Explanation: People in Haryana are less developed because they do not have appropriate medical facilities to save their infants, which makes Haryana less developed. That is, if you look at development from the perspective of child mortality rate.

The Public Distribution System (PDS) ensures the provision of food grains to underprivileged people at subsidized rates. The Health and nutritional status of people in such states is certainly likely to be better.

Sri Lanka, a smaller country than India, is much ahead of India in every respect and a big country like ours has such a low rank in the World Development Index. Though Nepal and Bangladesh have a lower per capita income than that of India, yet they are better than India in life expectancy. Many improvements have been suggested in calculating HDI and many new components have been added to the Human Development Report the name makes it very clear that the development of people, their health, their well-being, is the most important thing for a country.

Maintenance of development and growth is desirable. However, since the second half of the twentieth century, a number of scientists have been warning that the present type, and levels, of development, are not sustainable.

Important
Health and education indicators are important indicators used by certain commissions to measure development. The Human Development Report published by UNDP compares countries based on the educational levels of the people, their health status and per capita income.

Body Mass Index (BMI) measures our nutrition levels. To calculate weight and height are necessary. Weight is to be calculated in Kgs. The height recorded is to be converted from centimeters into meters. Divide the weight in kg by the square of the height. This is used to check whether a student is malnourished or not.

Example 2.
The development of a country can generally be determined by:
(a) its per capita income
(b) its average literacy level
(c) health status of its people
(d) all of the above
Answer:
(d) all of the above

Example 3.
Which of the following neighboring countries has better performance in terms of human development than India?
(a) Bangladesh
(b) Sri Lanka
(c) Nepal
(d) Pakistan
Answer:
(b) Sri Lanka

Example 4.
Assume there are four families in a country. The average per capita income of these families is Rs. 5000. If the income of three families is Rs. 4000, Rs. 7000 and Rs. 3000 respectively, what is the income of the fourth family?
(a) Rs. 7500
(b) Rs. 3000
(c) Rs. 2000
(d) Rs. 6000
Answer:
(d) Rs. 6000