Class 8 Civics Chapter 10 Law and Social Justice Important Questions and Answers

CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 10 Law and Social Justice Important Questions cover the major concepts of the chapter. Solving answers of these important questions help students to revise the Chapter most competently. We prepared these questions as per the latest NCERT book and CBSE syllabus. Practising the questions before the exam will ensure excellent marks in the exam.

CBSE Class 8 Civics Chapter 10 Important Questions PDF

Very Short Answer Type Questions

1. What is Minimum Wages Act? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Minimum Wages Act specifies that wages should not be below a specified minimum limit.

2. Name the three states which have published plans to rescue and rehabilitate children who are working as domestic servants.
Answer: Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

3. How can you say that the Child Labour Prevention Act is not successful in achieving its goal? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Even today 74% of child domestic workers are under the age of 16.

4. Which disaster brought the issue of environment to the forefront?
Answer: The Bhopal gas tragedy brought the issue of environment to the forefront.

5. Write the full form of CNG.
Answer: CNG stands for Compressed Natural Gas.

6. Name the three South Asian countries which play hosts for industries producing pesticides, asbestos, etc.
Answer: India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

7. What do old ships no longer in use contain?
Answer: These ships contain potentially dangerous and harmful substances.

8: How can the government ensure social justice?
Answer: Through making, enforcing and upholding certain laws, the government can control the activities of individuals or private companies so as to ensure social justice.

Short Answer Type Questions

1. What is the worth of an Indian worker? [V. Imp.]

Answer: One worker can easily replace another. Since there is so much unemployment, there are many workers who are willing to work in unsafe conditions in return for a wage. Making use of the worker’s vulnerability, employers ignore safety in workplaces. Thus, even so many years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, there are regular reports of accidents in construction sites, mines or factories due to the ruthless attitude of the employers.

2. How was the environment viewed before the Bhopal gas tragedy?

Answer: The environment was treated as a free entity and any industry could pollute the air and water without any restrictions. Whether it was our rivers, air, groundwater the environment was being polluted and the health of people disregarded. In 1984, there were very few laws protecting the environment in India, and there was hardly any enforcement of these laws. It was the Bhopal gas disaster that brought the issue of environment to the forefront.

3: What were the reasons for the Bhopal tragedy?

Answer: The Union Carbide tank’s alarms had not worked for 4 years. The steam boiler, intended to clean the pipes, was out of action and water sprays designed to “knock down” gas leaks were poorly designed. No action plans had been established to cope with incidents of this magnitude. The local authorities were not informed of the quantities or dangers of chemicals used and manufactured at the factory. These were the reasons for the Bhopal tragedy.

4: What are the reasons for the sharp differences in safety standards between the 2 Union carbide factories in the USA and India?

Answer: India has a high rate of unemployment and due to this workers are willing to work in unsafe conditions. One worker can easily replace another due to over population. Ignorance and the vulnerability of Indian workers is also another reason why the safety standards in the Indian factory were very much lower than the factory in USA.

Long Answer Type Questions

1. Write the adverse effects of orders on environmental issues given by courts. What can be done to make environment safe? [V. Imp.]

Answer: We can explain it with an example. The courts directed industries in residential areas in Delhi to close down or shift out of the city. Several of these industries were polluting the neighbourhood and discharge from these industries was polluting the river Yamuna, because they had been set up without following the rules.

The court’s action solved one problem no doubt but at the same time it created another problem, i.e. the problem of livelihood. Because of the closure, many workers lost their jobs. Others were forced to go to far-away places where these factories had relocated. And the same problem now began to come up in these areas—for now these places became polluted. And the issue of the safety conditions of workers remained unaddressed. Environment is a public facility. Hence it must be given due attention. We must think how we can make our environment clean. One way this can be done is to gradually move to cleaner technologies and processes in factories. The government has to encourage and support factories to do this. It will need to impose fine on those who pollute. This will ensure that the workers’ livelihoods are protected and both workers and communities living around the factories enjoy a safe environment.

2: How do government certifications like the ISI certification help the consumer?

Answer: When a product has the ISI mark the consumer can be certain that the product is of good quality and it is safe. Hall mark certification assures the consumer of the purity of gold they buy.
ISO certification assures the consumer that a company has a good Quality Management System.
Consumers might be put to risk by the poor quality of products such as electrical appliances, food, medicines if the government had not set up the Bureau of Indian Standards.

3: Write a brief note on the Bhopal gas tragedy.

Answer: Union Carbide was an American Company which had a factory in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, which produced pesticides. At midnight on 2^nd December, 1984, methyl-isocyanides – a highly poisonous gas – started leaking from the factory plant.
Within three days, more than 8,000 people were dead. Hundreds of thousands were maimed. Most of those exposed to the poison gas came from poor, working-class families.
There are nearly 50,000 people today who are too sick to work. Among those who survived, many developed severe respiratory disorders, eye problems and other disorders. Children developed peculiar abnormalities.
The Bhopal disaster is frequently cited as the world’s worst industrial disaster.

4: In what way was the Government responsible for the Bhopal tragedy?

Answer: Safety laws were lax in India and these weak safety laws were not enforced.
Government officials refused to recognise the plant as hazardous and allowed it to come up in a populated locality. Though there was some objection regarding the safety violation, the government allowed the factory to start production as it was providing jobs for the local people.
The government did not take the initiative to ask the Union Carbide Company to shift to cleaner technology or safer procedures. Government inspectors continued to approve the procedures in the plant, even when there were repeated incidents of poisonous gas leaks. So the government has to bear certain responsibility for the tragedy.