SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 13 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are given below. Choose the correct option: Assertion (A): Population explosion occurs when death rates decline rapidly but birth rates remain high. Reason (R): Societal reproductive behavior changes instantly with improvements in healthcare.

(a)Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
(b)Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation
(c)A is true, but R is false
(d)A is false, but R is true

Answer

Why

Correct — C. A is true. NCERT explains population explosion as the transition stage in which death rates are brought down relatively quickly, through disease control, public health and better nutrition, while birth rates stay high.

R is false. NCERT says the opposite: it takes longer for society to alter its reproductive behaviour, which formed in a time of poverty and high death rates. That lag causes the explosion → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A — R is false, so it cannot explain A. Reproductive behaviour changes slowly, and that delay is why birth rates stay high after death rates fall.
(b)
Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation — Needs R to be true. Birth rates lag behind falling death rates, so behaviour does not change instantly with better healthcare.
(d)
A is false, but R is true — A is true. NCERT's Class XII geography calls 1951-1981 India's period of population explosion, caused by a rapid fall in mortality while fertility stayed high.

Concept

The demographic transition theory has three stages. Growth is low at the start, when birth and death rates are both high, and low again at the end, when both have fallen.

In the middle, death rates fall first while birth rates stay high, and the gap drives very rapid growth. NCERT notes that Western Europe went through this transition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and that India's is not yet complete.

The trap is R's word instantly. Healthcare can cut deaths quickly, but habits about family size change far more slowly, and the theory rests on that gap.

Key facts

In the transitional stage, death rates fall quickly while birth rates stay high (NCERT Class XII Sociology).
NCERT calls 1951-1981 the period of population explosion in India, with average annual growth as high as 2.2 per cent.
Western Europe went through the demographic transition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Study next

Stages of the demographic transitionReplacement-level fertility and the total fertility ratePhases of India's population growth since 1901

Common traps

Marking R true because better healthcare does change behaviour eventually: the word is 'instantly'.
Choosing (a) because R sounds like a cause, before checking whether it is true.

Here the theory is tested as an Assertion-Reason pair with an absolute word in R. Demography is also asked in Assertion-Reason form at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.11, on birth and death registration (keyed A true, R false).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 179 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.