The State, the Government, and You Class 7 Notes SST Part 2 Chapter 6

Students read RBSE Class 7 SST Notes and Class 7 SST Part 2 Chapter 6 The State, the Government, and You Notes before attending weekly tests.

Class 7 The State, the Government, and You Notes

→ What is a State?

The state is a larger concept included citizens and territory of a country.
The state is sovereign, independent to make its laws without any outside control. The state has a government that makes and implement laws to run the country.

→ What is a Government?

The government is a group of people or a system that runs the country.
Government includes leaders, ministers, and officials who make laws, enforce laws and resolved disputes.

→ Democracy and Republic :

A republic is a form of government where the head of state is elected (directly or indirectly) by the people, rather than being a King or Queen who inherits power.
In a republic, the powers of the head of the state are limited through a constitution or laws.

→ India, a Republic that protects the Rights of All: Why is the protection of rights important

The Republics protect minority rights against majority dominance.
Kautilya’s Arthashastra emphasized law, order, and governance.
In India, institutions like legislature, executive, and judiciary ensure balance, prevent misuse of power, and safeguard citizen’s rights.
Legislature: It is the branch of government that makes laws for the country.

→ Executive: Political and Permanent :

Political executive consist of leaders elected by people; such as Prime Minister, Chief Minister, President, Governor etc.
Permanent executive includes government officers; such as IFS, IAS, IRS, IFoS.
Judiciary-The Judiciary is the part of government that make sure everyone follows the * laws. In democracy, like India, the judiciary is independent.

→ The Government and You :

The Government of India acts as protector, provider, and regulator through law, welfare, and infrastructure.
Despite this, problems like corruption, poor education, weak healthcare, and inadequate schemes still affect citizens.

→ Citizens ensure government works properly by :

Grievance, redressal-It includes offices, vigilance commissions, and online portals like PG Portal, ensuring timely complaint resolution and corruption investigation.
RTI-It allows citizens to ask about government policies, projects, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Use of Media-Citizens can use social media platforms like You Tube, X (Twitter), Facebook or Instagram.
Engagement through a civil society organisation-NGOs play a critical role in raising issues and also working with government to solve these issues.
Write to political representatives.
Vote in election.

→ Tiers of Government:

In India, there are three levels of government- Central government (at the national level), Stage government (at the state level) and Local government (at the town or villag level).
As a federal country, India has 28 states and 8 union territories. A single central (Union) government cannot meet the needs of all its people; therefore, governance is decentralised.
Decentralisation-It means that power and decision-making are spread out and not concentrated in one place/group.