Question

Read the given passage and answer the questions:

The conventional notion of social security is that the government would make periodic payments to look after people in their old age, ill health, disability, and poverty. This idea should itself change from writing a cheque for the beneficiary to institutional arrangements to take care of beneficiaries, including by enabling them to look after themselves, to a large extent. The write-a-cheque model of social security is a legacy from the rich world at the optimal phase of its demographic transition when the working population was numeral enough and earning enough to generate the taxes to pay for the care of those not working. This model is ill-suited for less, well-off India with growing life expectancy, increasing urbanization, and resultant migration. Social security under urbanization will be different from social security in a static society.

1. State the conventional notion of social security.
2. What kind of conceptual change is suggested in the given paragraph?
3. What is the legacy of social security from the rich world?
4. Which features of India make the traditional model of social security ill-suited for the economy?

Answer 1

1. The conventional notion of social security is that the government would make periodic payments to look after people in their old age, ill health, disability, and poverty.
2. The conceptual change in the paragraph is writing a cheque for the beneficiary to institutional arrangements to take care of beneficiaries, including by enabling them to look after themselves, to a large extent.
3. The write-a-cheque model of social security is a legacy from the rich world at the optimal phase of its demographic transition.
4. The traditional model is ill-suited for less, well-off India with a growing life expectancy, increasing urbanization, and resultant migration.