Social science comprises of History, Civics, Geography and Economics. It’s a mandatory subject in every school of India. It is a theoretical subject, devoid of numerical equations, unlike Mathematics and Science. It teaches the art of applying science in the society. Social science is said to be amongst the major categories of academic disciplines, concerned with society and the relationships among individuals within a society. It in turn has many branches, each of which is considered a “social science”. Social sciences often include anthropology, demography, human geography, political science, psychology, and sociology in addition to many other fields.
The discipline associated with social science generally has high cut off in the colleges. The students of social science are inspired to excel in the UPSC exams held in India for higher administrative posts. All the schools affiliated to CBSE follow the syllabus based on NCERT books. There are numerous schools, with branches all over the India. Some of the CBSE affiliated schools are located even outside India. There are multiple categories of schools in India, identified as government, private, charitable and missionary schools.
The government’s impetus to improve education in India has led it to focus on the underprivileged section of the society. Efforts to decrease the dropout rate and also increase enrollment have constituted large-scale government schemes like the Midday Meal, which is a school meal program of the government of India formulated to raise the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The program provides free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour. Such societal issues are best appreciated and tackled by the student of social science in comparison to student of different stream. Therefore it also known as humanities, a thing instilled with humanity. Midday Meal Serves 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres. This is also the largest such program in the world. The National Food Security Act, 2013, covers the Midday Meal Scheme.
The following points would better explained the usefulness of social science:
- Political scenario – A student of social science is well aware of the political dimensions at any given point of time about his/her state or the country.
- History – Social science also teaches us the history of the place that we live in as well as the world. It gives us a glimpse of the historical event centuries back too. History is a chronological record of significant events often including an explanation of their causes, or a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events.
- Geography – It teaches students about climate, rivers, mountains, forests etc. It explains geographical locations of a country, its latitudinal and longitudinal positioning. According to National Geographic Society, Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment and the way those locations and places can have an impact on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.
- Economics – According to American Economic Association, Economics is a discipline that can help us answer these questions. Economics can actually be defined in a few different ways: it’s the study of scarcity, the study of how people use resources, or the study of decision-making. Economics often involves topics like wealth, finance, recessions, and banking, leading to the misconception that economics is all about money and the stock market. Actually, it’s a much broader discipline that helps us understand historical trends, interpret today’s headlines, and make predictions for coming decades.
- Psychology – Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. One who studies psychology, is known as a psychologist. There is a great demand for psychologists in various fields.
- Sociology – According to the Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. Sociology’s subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture, and from social stability to radical change in whole societies. Sociology is an exciting and illuminating field of study that analyses and explains important matters in our personal lives, our communities, and the world. At the personal level, sociology investigates the social causes and consequences of such things as romantic love, racial and gender identity, family conflict, deviant behavior, aging, and religious faith.
- Judiciary – The role of the judiciary is the interpretation of the constitution. A student of social science can compete for judicial examination held for the selection of the judges even by studying CBSE NCERT solutions class 9 social science as most of the question are derived from the school text books.
- International Relation – It deals with world affairs and the international ramifications of international policies. A student of social science can rightly predict the global scenario with his adeptness in international relation.
- Anthropology – Anthropology is the science of human beings; especially : the study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture.
- Law – The discipline that has prompted many to opt law, as a profession is the discipline of social science. Since schools the student gets acquainted with the articles described in the constitution of India.
With the introduction of online education, the social science is acting as a boon for students as this has started providing ample study material to the student with ease. With abundance of career opportunity associated with social science, students are making beeline to enroll in any of the courses of social science.