On Equality Extra Questions Chapter 1 Class 7 Civics
Chapter 1 On Equality Class 7 Civics Extra Questions with answers is very useful in knowing what can come in the examinations. Extra Questions for Class 7 will increase concentration among students and help in revising the chapter properly.
Chapter 1 On Equality Very Short Answer Questions (VSAQs):
1. Which was the first state in India to introduce midday meal scheme?
Answer
Tamil Nadu was the first state in India to introduce this scheme.
2. Every person has access to all public places like malls, playground, and markets. What do you understand by this?
Answer
This means that the right to equality has been given by the constitution.
3. Name the government scheme which includes to provide children with cooked lunch.
Answer
Midday meal scheme.
4. What do you mean by dignity?
Answer
Dignity refers to the thinking of oneself and other persons as worthy of respect.
5. What is Joothan?
Answer
Joothan is autobiography of a famous Dalit writer Omprakash Valmiki.
6. What is Civil Rights Movement.
Answer
The civil rights movement refers to movement that began in USA in 1950s , in which African- American people demanded for equality before the law.
7. List two ways by which the government has tried to implement equality guaranteed in the constitution.
Answer
By law and by government programmes or schemes.
8. Why do you think Omprakash Valmiki was being treated unequally by his teachers and classmates in his school?
Answer
Because he was of the Dalit community (lower caste).
9. What is meant by Universal Adult Franchise?
Answer
It means that all adults in a country who are 18 years old or above have the right to vote irrespective of their social or economic backgrounds.
10. What is a Constitution?
Answer
A constitution is a document that lays down the basic rules and regulations for people and the government in the country to follow.
Chapter 1 On Equality Short Answer Questions (SAQs):
1. What is mid day meal scheme? Why was it set up? What are its positive effects?
Answer
Midday meal scheme refers to the programme introduced in all government elementary schools to provide children with cooked lunch. With the introduction of this scheme, more and more children have begun enrolling and regularly attending school. Their mothers, who earlier had to interrupt their work to feed their children at home during the day, now no longer need to do so. This programme has also helped reduce caste prejudices because both lower and upper caste children in the school eat this meal together. The midday meal programme also helps reduce the hunger of poor students.
2. Enlist the constitutional provisions that recognise equality in our country.
Answer
• Every person is equal before the law. This means that every person, from the president of the country to a domestic worker, has to obey the same laws.
• No person can be discriminated against on the basis of their religion, race, caste, sex or region.
• Every person has access to all public places including playgrounds, hotels, shops and markets. All persons can use publicly available well, roads and bathing ghats.
3. What is it that makes Kanta unsure?
Answer
• She lives in a slum and has a drain behind her house.
• Her daughter is sick but she cannot take the day off from work because she needs to borrow money from her employers to take her child to the doctor.
• Her job as a domestic help tires her out, and finally she ends her day by again standing in a long line.
This line, in front of the government hospital, is unlike the one in the morning because most of the people standing in it are poor.
4. What are the main reasons which is responsible for continuance of discrimination?
Answer
One of the main reasons for continuance of discrimination is that attitudes change very slowly.
• Persons are aware that discrimination is against the law. Still they continue to treat people unequally on the basis of their caste, religion, disability, economic status and sex.
• It is only when people begin to believe that no one is inferior and that every person deserves to be treated with dignity, that attitudes change.
• Establishing equality in a democratic society is a continuous struggle.
5. Does Kanta has enough reason to doubt the equality level of citizens?
Answer
Yes, Kanta has enough reasons to doubt whether she is really equal. The reasons behind it are:
• She cannot skip work when her daughter is ill
• She does not have enough money to take her to doctor
• She has to stand in a line in the government hospital for her turn to show her daughter to then doctor.
6. What do you mean by the term “All persons are equal before the law”? Why do you think this is important in a democracy?
Answer
By the term “all All persons are equal before the law”
• The law applies to everyone irrespective of their class, caste or gender
• The law expects everyone to treat others as equal in matters of using public places, under law and all the fundamental rights.
• This is important in a democracy so as to preserve the true nature of a democratic society where everyone’s dignity is respected.
7. In democracy why is universal adult franchise important?
Answer
In a democracy, universal adult franchise is important because of the following reasons:
• Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.
• Every adult irrespective of caste, creed, religion, region, sex, rich or poor people are allowed to vote. This is called universal adult franchise.
• Concept of universal adult franchise is based on equality.
• In democracy every citizen is equal.
8. Mention two different kinds of inequalities that exist in our country. Give examples.
Answer
Two different kinds of inequalities that exist in our country are—inequalities based on the caste system and that based on the religion.
• Omprakash Valmiki was treated extremely unequally because he was a dalit. In school, his headmaster made him sweep the school and the playground.
• The Ansaris were treated unequally on the basis differences of religion. They were looking to rent an apartment in the city. They were about to take an apartment at the first sight. But the moment the land lady knew their names she declined to rent the house.
9. Write a brief note on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Answer
The Civil Rights Act was passed in the year 1964. The Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion or national origin. It also stated that all schools would be open to African-American children and that they would no longer have to attend separate schools specially set up for them. However, a majority of African-Americans continue to be among the poorest in the country.
10. How are dalit children still discriminated against in our society?
Answer
Dalit is a term which is used for lower classes. Dalit means ‘broken’ and by using this word, lower castes are pointing to how they were and continue to be seriously discriminated against everywhere. They are still far away from achieving the states of equality. They are facing untold miseries. Their children are engaged in ragpicking instead of going to school.
Chapter 1 On Equality Long Answer Questions (LAQs):
1. State two ways in which this Article 15 addresses inequality?
Answer
Article 15 addresses inequality on two fronts.
• The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
• No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to –
(i) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or
(ii) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.
2. List five benefits of midday meal programme.
Answer
The benefits of mid-day meal programme are:
• It has helped increase the enrolment and attendance of poor children in school.
• Students earlier used to go home for lunch and never returned after that. This practice has been stopped.
• It has also helped reduce caste prejudices because both lower and upper caste children in the school eat this meal together, and in quite a few places, Dalit women have been employed to cook the meal.
• The midday meal programme also helps reduce the hunger of poor students who often come to school and cannot concentrate because their stomachs are empty.
• This lead to increase in literacy rate of a state and removal of inequality among rich and poor children from schools.
3. When persons are treated unequally, their dignity is violated. How?
Answer
• When persons are treated unequally their dignity is violated because they feel humiliated.
• The dignity of both Omprakash Valmiki and the Ansaris was violated because of the way in which they were treated.
• By picking on him and making him sweep the school, because of his caste, Omprakash Valmiki’s schoolmates and teachers badly hurt his dignity and made him feel as if he was less than equal to all other students in the school.
• Being a child Omprakash Valmiki could do very little about the situation that he was in. It was his father who felt angry by this unequal treatment. He confronted the teachers.
• The Ansaris’ dignity was also hurt when persons refused to lease their apartments to them.
• The suggestion of the property dealer to change their name also violated their dignity or self-respect. Hence, they refused this suggestion.
• Omprakash and the Ansaris do not deserve to be treated like this. They deserve the same respect and dignity as others.
4. What is the position of equality in India, a democratic country?
Answer
• The Indian Constitution recognises every person as equal.
• This means that every person in the country, both male and female from all castes, religions, tribes, educational and economic backgrounds is equal.
• Inequality still exists. But at least, in democratic India, the principle of the equality of all persons is recognised.
• Earlier no law existed to protect people from discrimination and, ill-treatment.
• Now there are several laws that work to see that people are treated with dignity and as equals.