Public Facilities

Welcome to HSLC Guru! This study guide brings you a complete English-medium learning resource for Class 8 Social Science, Political Science Chapter 9 — Public Facilities, prepared in accordance with the latest ASSEB (Assam State School Education Board) syllabus. The chapter explains why facilities like water, electricity, sanitation, public transport, schools and healthcare are essential for every citizen, how the government finances them through taxation, and why universal access remains a major challenge in India today.

Use this resource to revise concepts, prepare textbook questions and answers, and practise additional MCQs, fill-in-the-blanks and true/false items designed especially for ASSEB examinations.

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Chapter Summary

Public facilities are services that are essential for the well-being of every individual in society. The most important among these are safe drinking water, electricity, sanitation, public transport, schools, healthcare and a proper sewage system. Because these services are needed by everyone — rich or poor, urban or rural — they are not treated like ordinary goods. The government has the primary responsibility of providing them on a fair and equitable basis. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution recognises the Right to Life, and the courts have repeatedly held that the right to safe drinking water and a clean environment forms part of this right.

However, in practice access to public facilities is highly unequal. The Chennai water case study in the textbook clearly shows this disparity. While areas like Anna Nagar receive a steady supply of municipal water, neighbourhoods such as Mylapore receive water only once in two days, slum colonies like Saidapet depend on a single tap shared by hundreds of people, and apartments like those of Subramanian rely on private tankers and bottled water. The poor end up paying the highest price for an inferior quality of water, while the rich use private alternatives. Similar inequalities exist in electricity supply, in the quality of government and private schools, and in healthcare services.

The government meets the cost of providing public facilities mainly through taxation. Taxes collected from individuals (income tax), companies (corporate tax) and on goods and services (GST, excise, customs) form the main sources of revenue. A small portion of taxes paid by every citizen is enough to ensure water, sanitation, schools and hospitals for all, provided the government plans well and avoids leakages. Private companies generally do not enter such areas because the profit margins are low and supplying remote or poor regions is not commercially attractive. Where private companies have been allowed to supply water — as in some cities of the world — the prices rose so sharply that the poor could no longer afford it, leading to public protests.

The need of the hour is universal access. Every citizen, regardless of income or location, must receive a minimum quantity of safe water, basic sanitation, primary education and essential healthcare. Alternatives such as community-managed water supply, the Sulabh Shauchalaya movement that built thousands of low-cost public toilets, and the landmark Mumbai High Court judgement in the ‘Right to Water’ case (Pani Haq Samiti vs Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, 2014), which ruled that even slum dwellers have a constitutional right to water, all demonstrate that public facilities can be expanded with the right mix of public funding, civic participation and judicial support.

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Textbook Questions and Answers

1-Mark Questions

Q1. What are public facilities?

Answer: Public facilities are essential services such as water, electricity, sanitation, schools, healthcare and public transport that are needed by every member of society and are usually provided by the government.

Q2. Name any two public facilities mentioned in the textbook.

Answer: Safe drinking water and public healthcare are two important public facilities.

Q3. Which Article of the Indian Constitution guarantees the Right to Life?

Answer: Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the Right to Life, which has been interpreted to include the right to safe drinking water.

Q4. What is the main source of revenue for the government to provide public facilities?

Answer: The main source of revenue is taxation collected from citizens and companies.

Q5. Which city is used as a case study to show unequal access to water in the textbook?

Answer: The city of Chennai is used as a case study.

Q6. What is a ‘tanker’?

Answer: A tanker is a large vehicle that carries water and sells it, usually to households facing water shortage, for a price.

Q7. What does the term ‘universal access’ mean?

Answer: Universal access means that every person, regardless of income or location, should be able to use a basic public facility at an affordable cost.

Q8. Name the organisation that built thousands of low-cost public toilets in India.

Answer: The Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (Sulabh Shauchalaya) built thousands of low-cost public toilets across India.

Q9. In which year did the Bombay (Mumbai) High Court deliver the famous Right to Water judgement?

Answer: The Bombay High Court delivered the Right to Water judgement in the year 2014.

Q10. Name any one tax through which the central government raises revenue.

Answer: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one important tax through which the central government raises revenue.

2-3 Mark Questions

Q1. Why are public facilities considered essential for the well-being of citizens?

Answer: Public facilities are essential because they fulfil basic human needs that no individual can produce alone. Safe water prevents disease, electricity supports work and study, schools provide education and hospitals save lives. Without these services, citizens cannot lead a dignified life and the country cannot develop economically or socially. That is why their provision is treated as a public responsibility.

Q2. Describe the inequality in water supply highlighted by the Chennai case study.

Answer: The Chennai case study shows sharp inequality. Anna Nagar residents enjoy a regular municipal supply, Mylapore residents receive water once in two days, while Saidapet slum dwellers must queue for hours at a single shared tap. Wealthy apartments arrange private tankers and bottled water, paying high prices but securing supply. Thus, the rich access water through private means while the poor suffer shortages — proving that water access depends on income and locality, not on need.

Q3. Explain the role of the government in providing public facilities.

Answer: The government plans, finances and supplies public facilities so that all citizens can use them. It collects revenue through taxation, builds infrastructure such as pipelines, roads, schools and hospitals, regulates private suppliers and ensures that the poor are not left out. The government also legislates rights — for example, the Right to Education Act and judicial recognition of the Right to Water — so that access becomes a legal entitlement, not a favour.

Q4. Why are private companies generally not interested in providing public facilities to all?

Answer: Private companies operate to earn profit. Public facilities such as water and sanitation require huge investment in pipes, plants and maintenance, while the income from poor consumers is low. Serving remote villages or slums is not commercially attractive. Where private companies have entered water supply, prices have risen sharply, putting the service out of reach of the poor. Hence, the market alone cannot ensure universal access.

Q5. What is the importance of the Sulabh Shauchalaya movement?

Answer: The Sulabh Shauchalaya movement, founded by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, built thousands of pay-and-use public toilets and bathing facilities across India. It improved sanitation in cities and railway stations, eliminated open defecation in many areas, helped restore dignity to manual scavengers and showed how a non-profit model can extend a public facility to the poor at a very low cost.

Q6. List the main sources of revenue used by the government to fund public facilities.

Answer: The main sources are: (i) Income tax paid by individuals on their earnings, (ii) Corporate tax paid by companies on profits, (iii) Goods and Services Tax (GST) on goods and services, (iv) Customs and excise duties on imports and selected products, and (v) Non-tax revenue such as fees, fines and dividends from public sector undertakings.

5-6 Mark Questions

Q1. Discuss in detail the inequalities in the supply of public facilities in India with the help of the Chennai water case study.

Answer: Although public facilities are meant for all, their distribution in India is highly unequal. The Chennai water case study brings this out clearly. Residents of well-developed localities such as Anna Nagar receive piped municipal water almost daily, while Mylapore receives supply only once in two days. In slum areas such as Saidapet, hundreds of families share one or two public taps, often quarrelling for water in long queues. Wealthier residents in apartments like those of Subramanian solve their problem by buying water from private tankers and bottled water companies, spending large amounts every month. The poor, who can afford the least, end up paying proportionally more for water of poorer quality. The same pattern is seen in electricity (frequent cuts in poor areas), schooling (private English-medium schools versus crowded government schools) and healthcare (corporate hospitals versus underfunded public hospitals). These inequalities arise from unequal incomes, unequal political power and uneven government investment. Reducing them requires expansion of public supply, better regulation of private players and special schemes for the underserved.

Q2. Explain why the government, rather than private companies, should take primary responsibility for providing essential public facilities.

Answer: Public facilities are linked to fundamental rights such as the right to life, health and education. They are needed by everyone, but the poor cannot pay market prices for them. Private companies, driven by profit, charge prices that cover cost plus margin and naturally avoid loss-making areas like remote villages or slums. International experience — for example, the privatisation of water supply in Cochabamba (Bolivia) and parts of South Africa — shows that private control led to steep price hikes and protests. The Indian government, in contrast, can pool resources through taxation, cross-subsidise the poor with revenue from the rich, plan long-term infrastructure and ensure quality through regulation. The Constitution and the Supreme Court have also held that providing safe drinking water, sanitation and basic education is part of the State’s duty under Articles 21, 21A and the Directive Principles. Therefore, the primary responsibility must rest with the government, while private players may supplement, not replace, public provisioning.

Q3. Describe the different sources of government revenue and explain how these are used to provide public facilities.

Answer: The government raises money through tax and non-tax sources. Direct taxes include income tax on individual earnings and corporate tax on company profits; these are progressive, meaning richer people pay a higher rate. Indirect taxes include the Goods and Services Tax (GST), customs duties on imports and excise duties on items like petroleum. Non-tax revenue comes from fees, fines, profits of public sector undertakings, interest on loans given by the government and dividends from investments. The collected revenue is allocated through the Union Budget and State Budgets to different ministries. A part is spent on building infrastructure — laying water pipelines, electricity grids, roads, schools and hospitals. Another part funds salaries of teachers, doctors, engineers and sanitation workers. Subsidies are given on essential items like food, fertilisers, LPG and electricity for poor households. Programmes such as Jal Jeevan Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Ayushman Bharat are financed mainly out of tax revenue. In this way, money collected from the public returns to the public in the form of essential services.

Q4. What does universal access to public facilities mean? Suggest measures to achieve it in India.

Answer: Universal access means that every person in the country, irrespective of income, caste, gender or location, should be able to obtain a minimum, dignified level of essential services such as safe water, sanitation, electricity, schooling and healthcare. To achieve universal access, the following measures are necessary: (i) Increased public investment in infrastructure, especially in villages, hilly regions and urban slums; (ii) Strict regulation of private providers so that prices remain affordable and quality remains acceptable; (iii) Cross-subsidies — charging higher rates from large users so that the poor can be served at lower rates; (iv) Decentralisation, giving panchayats and municipal wards real power and funds to manage local water and sanitation; (v) Encouraging community models like rainwater harvesting, cooperative water societies and Sulabh-style sanitation; (vi) Strengthening rights-based laws such as the Right to Education Act and a possible Right to Water Act; (vii) Awareness campaigns so that citizens demand their entitlements and monitor delivery. Through this combination of public action, legal rights and community participation, India can move steadily towards genuine universal access.

Q5. Discuss the alternatives to government supply of public facilities and explain their advantages and limitations.

Answer: Several alternatives exist alongside government supply. (a) Private supply by companies — efficient and well-managed, but expensive and unwilling to serve unprofitable areas. (b) Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) — the government provides land and licences while a private firm builds and operates the facility. This can speed up infrastructure but tariffs may rise. (c) Cooperative or community-based supply — for example, village water user committees and cooperative dairies; these ensure local ownership but face problems of finance and technical skill. (d) NGO and trust-based supply such as Sulabh Shauchalaya for toilets, or Akshaya Patra for school mid-day meals — they fill important gaps but cannot cover the entire country. (e) Self-help mechanisms such as bore wells, inverters, private tutors — used by individual households when public supply fails, but they deepen inequality because only the rich can afford them. The best long-term path is a strong, well-funded public system supplemented by community and PPP models, with private players regulated to ensure that no citizen is denied a basic service for lack of money.

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Additional Multiple Choice Questions

Q1. Which of the following is NOT a public facility?

(a) Safe drinking water
(b) Public transport
(c) Designer clothing
(d) Government school

Answer: (c) Designer clothing.

Q2. The Right to Water has been interpreted as part of which fundamental right?

(a) Right to Equality
(b) Right to Life
(c) Right to Freedom
(d) Right to Property

Answer: (b) Right to Life.

Q3. Which case study in the textbook illustrates unequal access to water?

(a) Mumbai
(b) Delhi
(c) Chennai
(d) Kolkata

Answer: (c) Chennai.

Q4. The major source of government revenue is —

(a) Donations
(b) Foreign aid
(c) Taxation
(d) Lottery

Answer: (c) Taxation.

Q5. Sulabh Shauchalaya is mainly associated with —

(a) Drinking water
(b) Public toilets and sanitation
(c) Electricity supply
(d) Public transport

Answer: (b) Public toilets and sanitation.

Q6. The Pani Haq Samiti judgement was delivered by which High Court?

(a) Chennai High Court
(b) Bombay (Mumbai) High Court
(c) Delhi High Court
(d) Gauhati High Court

Answer: (b) Bombay (Mumbai) High Court.

Q7. Which of these is an example of an indirect tax?

(a) Income tax
(b) Corporate tax
(c) GST
(d) Wealth tax

Answer: (c) GST.

Q8. Why are public facilities not left to the private market?

(a) They are too cheap
(b) The poor would be excluded
(c) They are luxury items
(d) They are not needed

Answer: (b) The poor would be excluded.

Q9. ‘Anna Nagar’ and ‘Saidapet’ mentioned in the textbook are localities of —

(a) Mumbai
(b) Bengaluru
(c) Chennai
(d) Hyderabad

Answer: (c) Chennai.

Q10. Universal access to public facilities means —

(a) Free luxury services for all
(b) Basic services available to every citizen
(c) Services only in cities
(d) Services only for those who pay taxes

Answer: (b) Basic services available to every citizen.

Fill in the Blanks

Q1. Article ______ of the Indian Constitution guarantees the Right to Life.

Answer: 21.

Q2. The main source of revenue for the Indian government is ______.

Answer: taxation.

Q3. The case study of unequal water supply in the textbook is from the city of ______.

Answer: Chennai.

Q4. ______ Shauchalaya built thousands of low-cost public toilets in India.

Answer: Sulabh.

Q5. The Pani Haq Samiti judgement on the Right to Water was delivered in the year ______.

Answer: 2014.

True or False

Q1. Public facilities are needed only by the rich.

Answer: False.

Q2. Safe drinking water has been recognised as part of the Right to Life.

Answer: True.

Q3. Private water tankers in Chennai serve mainly the slum population at low rates.

Answer: False.

Q4. The government uses tax revenue to build schools, hospitals and water supply systems.

Answer: True.

Q5. Sulabh Shauchalaya is a private profit-making company that owns hospitals.

Answer: False.

Glossary

Term	Meaning
Public Facility	An essential service such as water, electricity or schooling that is needed by all and is mainly provided or regulated by the government.
Sanitation	Arrangements for keeping places clean, including toilets, sewage and waste disposal.
Sewage	Waste water and excreta carried away by drains and pipes from homes and factories.
Universal Access	The principle that every citizen, regardless of income or location, should be able to use a basic public service.
Tax	A compulsory payment made by individuals and businesses to the government, used to fund public services.
Direct Tax	A tax paid directly by a person or company on income or profit, e.g., income tax, corporate tax.
Indirect Tax	A tax collected on goods and services, paid indirectly by consumers, e.g., GST, excise duty.
Revenue	The total income earned by the government from taxes and other sources.
Budget	An annual statement of the government’s expected income and planned expenditure.
Subsidy	Financial help given by the government to reduce the price of an essential good or service for the people.
Article 21	The fundamental right that protects life and personal liberty, and includes the right to clean water and a healthy environment.
Pani Haq Samiti	A people’s group whose petition led the Bombay High Court in 2014 to recognise the Right to Water for slum dwellers in Mumbai.
Sulabh Shauchalaya	A non-profit organisation founded by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak that built lakhs of low-cost public toilets across India.
Privatisation	The transfer of a service or asset from government control to private companies.
Public-Private Partnership (PPP)	A model in which the government and private firms together build and run a public facility.
Slum	A densely populated, poorly serviced urban settlement where many basic facilities are lacking.
Tanker Supply	Distribution of water through large tank-vehicles, often used in areas without piped supply, usually at high cost.
Cross-subsidy	Charging higher rates from rich users so that poorer users can be charged lower rates for the same service.