NCERT Solutions for Class 5 EVS Chapter 16

Dignity of Labour means that all occupation, whether involving intellect or physical labour, needs to be given equal respect and dignity. A person should never be favoured or discriminated on the basis of his occupation.

Different people do different kinds of work. This is called division of labour. Division of labour is the separation of a work process into a number of tasks, with each task performed by a separate person or group of persons.

Instead of judging people by their past, stand by them and help them build their future.
• Treat everyone with kindness
• Be polite to them
• Help them and show respect towards them
• We should treat the people as our equal

Work is a job that a person does mostly in order to earn money.

Work is worship and no work is high or low. So, we should not be ashamed do any work. We should not be ashamed to do any work. We must concentrate on our own work. We should be proud of it and do it with dignity and always give best and never lose hope.

In our society people who do menial work are regarded as lowly and are placed at the lowest level of the social ladder. They were called as untouchables. Gandhiji named untouchables as Harijans, Harijans means people of God.

The services that we depend upon or we need every day in a society are called essential services. The essential services are postal, telegraph or telephone service, railway service or any transport service for the carriage of passengers or goods by air and any service connected with the operation or maintenance of aerodromes, any service in any major port.

We all are dependent on one another to provide essential services needed in a society. None of us can do all the work by ourselves. Different people do different work so we should never look down others work.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi also called Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against the British rule in India. He is also called Bapu and known as the Father of the Nation.

Gandhiji came to India from South Africa and saw that caste system was prevalent in the country. People treated the untouchables very badly and denied them of their basic rights. He believed that if people followed untouchability then it would divide India’s social classes. Gandhi worked for the freedom of the untouchables, whom he called Harijans, or “Children of God.” Gandhiji did the following things for these people:
• In September 1932, while he was in jail, he undertook a “fast unto death” to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables.
• He organised satyagraha to secure them entry into temples and access to public wells, tanks an d schools.
• He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the sweepers and persuaded upper castes to change their heart and give up the sin of untouchability.

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar is called the father of the Indian Constitution and was also a well- known leader of the Dalits. He fought for the rights of the Dalit community. He was born into the Mahar caste, which was considered untouchable. He fought for the justice of the people who were treated as untouchables. He was the chairman of the drafting committee of our constitution.

Menial job is very boring, and the people who do it have a low status and are usually badly paid. There are many low-paid menial jobs, such as cleaning and domestic work. It is a job that does not require any skill or professional degree or education.

Narayan Desai was a follower of Gandhiji. He was the son of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal secretary and biographer Mahadev Desai. He was born in Bulsar (now Valsad), Gujarat. He was an author and wrote many books about the ideas and life of Gandhi.

When Narayan was about 11 years old, he used to stay in Gandhiji’s Sabarmati Ashram. There he had to do various kinds of work. One of his jobs was to teach the guests how to clean the toilets.

Sabarmati Ashram which named after the river on which it sits, was created for two reasons.
• To serve as an institution that would search for truth and
• a platform to bring together a group of workers committed to non-violence who would help India secure freedom.

Keeping a place clean and neat is our responsibility. It is necessary to keep our environment clean because we get fresh air, reduce pollution etc. An unclean environment leads to a bad condition of a society, diseases etc. Keeping the environment clean is a collective responsibility which we all have to share. Every citizen has a role to play in protecting the environment from pollution. We need to remove litter and avoid irresponsible waste disposal practices as soon as possible. We need to reduce, reuse and recycle our waste wherever possible.

People are not ready to do such jobs because they are considered inferior by other people and they are not treated with respect too. Some are not ready to such jobs because they are getting educated and have other options for job too. They want to earn more money for themselves and live a better life. That is why they don’t want to work as sweepers, dish washers, sewage cleaners etc.

The people who menial work like cleaning, scavenging etc. face many difficulties like-‘
• they have to work in unhygienic conditions
• they are often treated badly by other people
• they are not given any respect
• people don’t speak politely with them
• people look down upon them and keep hatred for them
• they are not paid properly.

Gandhiji wanted to make people understand that there is nothing bad in doing any type of work. He wanted to change the view of the people about the people who did such jobs or considered these jobs of low status. He wanted to remove untouchability from our country. He wanted to convey that all work is equal as well as important and nothing is big or small.

People who were cleaning the toilets were treated badly. They were looked down upon and people spoke to them with hatred. They spoke with them rudely and with disrespect. They were insulted by them and disliked by them. They were not allowed to enter the temple or kitchen etc.

The girls were supposed to perform all the household chores like cooking, sewing, washing clothes, ironing clothes etc.

Boys were supposed to repair an electrical fault, repair cars etc, lift or move heavy things. It was believed that there are certain tasks which needed to be done by men only.

Untouchability was a wrong practice because no one is born big or small. Everyone is born equal and thus to consider someone as of low status or high status is completely wrong. It is not right to deny any one the right of entering a temple or taking water from the well and calling them untouchables.

Some people were not interested in living in Gandhiji’s ashram because there were no toilets during those days. People used to sit on holes under which there were baskets which had to be emptied with hand. It was a usual practice that people from a particular community would do this work. But in Gandhiji’s Ashram, every person had to carry the basket to the compost pit and empty it there. No one was excused from this task, not even the guests. So, some people used to try and avoid this work. Some even left the Ashram because of this.

Equality is the condition of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. Equality among people means that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents. It means that everyone is equal in the eyes of law and there will be no discrimination on the basis of colour, creed, caste, gender or religion. All will be treated equally whether rich or poor, or educated or uneducated.

Article 14 of the Indian Constitution guarantees to all persons Equality before the law and equal protection of the laws.

When he was seven-years old, he went to Goregaon in Maharashtra with his father to spend his holidays. There he saw a barber cutting the long hair of a rich farmer’s buffalo. He thought of his own long hair and went to the barber and asked for a haircut. The barber did not cut his hair and said that if he would cut his hair both his razor will get dirty/ This was an incident of untouchability which took place with him.