Welfare and Development Services Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: A

FCRA registration is issued and administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Because the FCRA concerns the influence of foreign funds on internal affairs and security, its administration lies with the Ministry of Home Affairs, through its Foreigners Division. Organisations apply to it for registration or prior permission to receive foreign contributions.

The Ministry of Finance handles taxation and foreign exchange under FEMA, the Ministry of Law drafts legislation, and the Ministry of External Affairs handles foreign relations. None of them administers the FCRA.

Answer: B

The National Commission for Women is a statutory body.

It was constituted in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990, an Act of Parliament. Its powers and functions, such as reviewing laws affecting women and inquiring into complaints, come from that Act.

A non-statutory body is set up by an executive order without a law behind it. 'Semi-statutory' and 'quasi-statutory' are not the categories used for the NCW, which has full statutory status.

Answer: A

HelpAge India was established in 1978.

HelpAge India, registered in 1978, is a national voluntary organisation working for the cause and care of older persons, running mobile health units, support for elders' self-help groups and advocacy on elder rights.

1958, 1968 and 1988 are not its founding year. The organisation grew out of the international HelpAge movement and became an independent Indian charity in the late 1970s.

Answer: A

The Central Social Welfare Board was set up on 12th August 1953.

The Government of India created the Board by a resolution in August 1953 to promote voluntary social welfare organisations and to run welfare programmes for women, children and other disadvantaged groups through them. Durgabai Deshmukh was its first chairperson, and State Social Welfare Advisory Boards were later set up to work with it. In 1969 it was registered as a charitable company.

The other dates do not match. 1963 and 1960 are a decade later than its founding, and July 1950 falls before the First Five Year Plan under which the Board was conceived.

Answer: A

The one that is not a component is Publicity.

The components of social welfare administration are usually set out through Luther Gulick's POSDCORB: Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, Co-ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. These are the functions an administrator performs to run an agency.

Planning, organising and staffing are the first three letters of that list, so options B, C and D are components. Publicity can be part of an agency's public relations, but it is not one of the core administrative components in this scheme. Reporting, which is in the list, means keeping the agency and its board informed, not advertising.

Answer: A

The key's answer is Unity of Command.

Among Henri Fayol's principles, unity of command means each employee takes orders from only one superior, and unity of direction means each group of activities with the same objective has one head and one plan. Both aim at a single, clear line of authority, and the paper treats unity of direction as following from unity of command. Fayol himself listed them as separate, complementary principles.

The scalar chain (printed 'Schalar Chain') is the line of authority from top to bottom. A sense of belongingness and team work relate to esprit de corps. Neither of these is the principle that unity of direction is paired with.

Answer: A

HelpAge India supports NGOs working for Senior Citizens.

HelpAge India, set up in 1978, is a national voluntary organisation working for disadvantaged older people. Besides its own programmes, such as mobile health units and advocacy for pensions and elder rights, it has long funded and supported partner NGOs that run old age homes, day care centres and other services for the elderly.

Organisations for children, youth and farmers are supported by other agencies, for example child rights organisations or farmer producer bodies. The word 'Age' in the name points to its focus on ageing and older persons.

Answer: A

Opportunities should be given to the Lower echelon/section of the Society.

Participatory decision making means involving those who are usually left out: frontline staff and, above all, the people the organisation serves. In social welfare these are the poorer and weaker sections, whose needs the services exist to meet. Their participation makes decisions more relevant and gives them a voice and a sense of ownership.

The upper echelon already holds decision-making power, so giving it more is not participation. Social and welfare institutions are organisations, not the people whose participation the idea is about.

Answer: B

The Societies Registration Act was enacted in 1860.

Act XXI of 1860 provides for registering societies formed for literary, scientific or charitable purposes, and it remains the law under which a large number of Indian NGOs and voluntary organisations are registered. Several states have adopted it with their own amendments, and Maharashtra registers societies under it alongside the Bombay Public Trusts Act.

1850, 1870 and 1960 are close distractors. The useful fixed point is that the Act belongs to the same burst of legislation that produced the Indian Penal Code in 1860.

Answer: D

UNFPA stands for United Nations Fund for Population Activities.

The fund began operations in 1969 under that name. In 1987 it was renamed the United Nations Population Fund, but it kept the familiar acronym UNFPA. It works on reproductive health, family planning, maternal health and population data.

The other expansions change a single word: it is not an award fund, its work is far wider than analysis, and the 'P' stands for population, not popular activities. Only option D gives the original name from which the acronym comes.