Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
The Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-GRAM G), 2025, has been replaced by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The goal of this modification is to improve Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to life. MGNREGA has improved socioeconomic conditions by facilitating wage payments, providing unemployment benefits, and promoting equal earnings. There has been sustainable development, and research has confirmed the impact of this program to raise earnings, alleviate poverty, and encourage school enrollment. In the past five years, women have comprised 58% of the workforce, significantly contributing to rural development, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given these factors, it is important to assess both the benefits and current challenges of the system.
Despite MGNREGA’s successes, the program has faced implementation challenges, mainly due to inadequate funding, as acknowledged by the Ministry of Finance. Delays in wage payments and fewer work opportunities have resulted from this lack of funds. Recent rules, such as introducing an attendance application that uses photos, have created new problems and made corruption easier. Due to these issues, the VB-GRAM G Act has introduced important changes, including sections 5(1) and 4(5), which give the Union Government greater control over the public works program.
What can be reasonably inferred about the relationship between women's participation and rural resilience during the pandemic?
- (a)The fact that they were active seemingly led to the acceleration of the community's fiscal problems because it resulted in program expenditure being amplified during a time of uncertainty.
- (b)Their significant involvement contributed to the continuation of the community through the maintenance of the local economy in spite of the general economic disruptions that were happening.
- (c)Their involvement could have led to a decrease in total program productivity owing to the fact that the local populace was heavily burdened with expanded caregiving during the pandemic.
- (d)Their intensified appearance might have worsened the existing support structures that were failing in the health crisis.
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The deciding sentence: 'In the past five years, women have comprised 58% of the workforce, significantly contributing to rural development, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.'
The direction is positive: 'significantly contributing'. The time is the pandemic, a period of disruption.
Option (b) keeps both: significant involvement that kept the local economy going despite the disruption. That is resilience.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)The fact that they were active seemingly led to the acceleration of the community's fiscal problems because it resulted in program expenditure being amplified during a time of uncertainty. — Reverses the passage's direction. Women were 'significantly contributing' to rural development, and nothing links their work to worse fiscal problems or inflated spending.
- (c)Their involvement could have led to a decrease in total program productivity owing to the fact that the local populace was heavily burdened with expanded caregiving during the pandemic. — The passage credits women with 'significantly contributing', the opposite of lower productivity, and never mentions caregiving. The burden in this option comes from outside the text.
- (d)Their intensified appearance might have worsened the existing support structures that were failing in the health crisis. — 'Worsened' contradicts 'significantly contributing to rural development'. The passage never describes support structures failing, let alone women's work making them worse.
Concept
An inference goes one step beyond the text in the direction the text already points. It never reverses it.
The passage gives a figure (58% of the workforce), a verdict ('significantly contributing to rural development') and a time ('particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic').
Put together: women's work helped rural communities hold up through the crisis. Three options turn that verdict negative, so none of them is an inference from it.
Key facts
- The passage puts women at 58% of the workforce over the past five years.
- Resilience is the capacity to withstand a shock and recover from it.
- An 'inference' that reverses the passage's stated verdict is a contradiction.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing a negative option because 'reasonably inferred' seems to ask for something hidden or critical.
- Bringing in outside ideas about the pandemic, such as caregiving burdens, that the passage never uses.
An implied-meaning item at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.19 is decided the same way: its key, 'They are growing but need sustained reforms', keeps that passage's own mix of 'cautious optimism' and 'challenges remain'.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.