CBSE Class 12 Sociology Solved Question Paper 2012

The goods that people buy and use are closely related to their status in society. This relationship is termed as status symbol. Example the brand of cell phone or the model of car (or any other example) that one owns or uses are markers of socio-economic status.

1. All over the world there have been people who are differently abled. Disability is understood as biological given.
2. Whenever confronted with problems, it is taken for granted that the problem originates from their impairment.
3. Now a days terms as 'mentally challenged'/visually impaired and 'physically compared' are being used to replace the more trite negative terms such as 'retarded', 'crippled' or 'lame'. The 'disabled' are caused disabled not because they are biologically disabled but society causes them so.
4. The social construction of disability has a different dimension. We find a close relationship between disability and poverty, malnutrition, mothers weakened by frequent childbirth, insufficient immunisation programmes, accidents in overpopulated homes. Undoubtedly, disabled people are among the poorest in the poor countries.

1. National development, particularly in the Nehruvian era, involved the building of large dams, factories and mines. While the tribal areas were located in mineral rich and forest covered parts of the country.
2. This type of national development has benefited the mainstream at the expense of the tribe. The process of dispossessing tribals of their land has occurred as essential by-product of the exploitation of minerals and other resources.
3. During the British period, forests started to be systemtically exploited and this loss  of forests affects the tribal economy.
4. Heavy in-migration of non-tribal also threatens the tribals community and culture.  The industrial areas of Jharkhand for example have suffered a dilution of the tribal share of population. 

Tribal political institution:

1. These are fairly well developed and function at various tiers, such as village, clan and state level. for example- Khasis had their own council known as 'Durbar Kur' which was presided over by the clan headman.
   
   
2. Many of the states of north east have been living for decades under special laws that limit the civil liberties of citizens. The citizens of state like Manipur, Nagaland don't have the same rights as other citizens of India because their states have been declared as 'disturbed area'.

(i) Social exclusion refers to ways in which individuals are cut off from full involvement in the wider society.
(ii) It is involuntary as it is practised regardless of the wishes of those who are excluded.
(iii) Rich people are never found sleeping on the pavements but poor people in cities and towns often do. Rich are not being excluded from access to pavements but they choose not to sleep there.
(iv) Prolonged experience of discriminatory or insulting behavior often produces a reaction on the part of the excluded who then stop trying for inclusion. Example- 'Upper' caste communities have often denied entry into temple for the 'lower' castes, especially Dalits. 

‘Caste’ is a word borrowing from the Portuguese casta, meaning pure breed. The word refers to a broad institutional arrangement that in Indian languages (beginning with the ancient Sanskrit) is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati.

The Millennium Development Goal target (MDG) is to bring down the IMR - the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births to 28 by 2015.

1. No doubt India is socially and culturally one of the most diverse countries of the world. With a population of about 1029 million people, these billion-plus people speak about 1,632 different languages and dialects.
2. In terms of religion, about 80.5% of the population are Hindus, who in turn are regionally specific, plural in beliefs and practices, and divided by castes and languages.
3. About 13.4% of the population are Muslims, which makes India the world’s third largest Muslim country after Indonesia and Pakistan.
4. The other major religious communities are Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%) and Jains (0.4%). Because of India’s huge population, these small percentages can also add up to large absolute numbers.

Infant Mortality Rate: The infant mortality rate is the number of death of babies before the age of one year per 1000 live births.
  The following districts have reduced their IMR to 28:
  Purbi Singhbhum, Rudraprayag, Dhanbad, Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Almora.