NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Social Science Chapter 8 Needs and wants — LET'S EXPLORE

Book page 184 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.

List three things your parents bought this month. Can you classify them into needs or wants?

Answer

This is your own list, so the marks lie in the classifying and the reason, not in the items.

Method. Write down three purchases you actually saw or know about. Against each, apply the chapter's test: a need is an essential — something the family could not manage without, like food, water or shelter; a want is something that adds comfort, pleasure or status but life goes on without it. Then give one line of reason for each, because the same item can fall on either side depending on the family's situation.

Item bought	Need or want	Reason
Wheat flour, dal and vegetables for the month	Need	Food is one of the essentials the chapter names; the family cannot go without it
School notebooks and a geometry box for my sister	Need	Required for schooling; without them her studies stop
A new smartphone, when the old one still worked	Want	The old phone made calls; the new one adds a better camera and speed. Fig. 8.1 places gadgets in the wants row

Sample answer: This month my parents bought the month's groceries, notebooks and a geometry box for my sister, and a new smartphone. The groceries and the school supplies are needs — food and education are essentials, and the family cannot manage without them. The smartphone is a want, because the older phone still worked; the new one was bought for a better camera. Making this list showed me that our needs are a fairly short and repeating list, while our wants are the ones that keep changing every few months.

Why the line is not fixed: a smartphone is a want for a student, but for a parent who runs a small shop and takes orders and payments on it, the same phone becomes a need. The chapter's own example makes the point about change rather than category — people “may want to upgrade from a bicycle to a motorbike and then to a car”, so what counted as a satisfying want yesterday becomes the ordinary starting point tomorrow.

Q2.

Do you think having too many wants may create problems? Why or why not?

Answer

Yes — because wants are unlimited while the resources to satisfy them are not, so beyond a point extra wants only add pressure without adding satisfaction. The chapter states both halves of that sentence: “Human wants are unlimited and keep changing”, and “both natural and human-made resources are limited in quantity.”

The problems that follow, in order:

Fixed money spread thinner. A household's income is limited. Chasing many wants at once means either needs get squeezed, or savings do — and savings are what pay for emergencies. The chapter notes that families must allocate money across essential items, non-essential items and savings.
The opportunity cost rises. Every want satisfied is another use of the same money given up. With too many wants, you are constantly giving up something you would have valued more.
Pressure on scarce resources. Wants are met by producing more goods, and production draws on natural resources like water, coal and land, which are limited. More wants therefore mean faster extraction and more waste.
Dissatisfaction that does not end. Because wants keep changing — bicycle to motorbike to car — satisfying one simply reveals the next. The wanting does not stop when a purchase is made.

The other side, stated fairly: wants are not simply a flaw. New wants are what push producers to make better goods and to innovate — the chapter says competition among many producers “encourages better quality, lower prices, and innovation.” A society with no new wants would also have little new production. The problem is not that wants exist; it is that unlimited wants meeting limited resources creates scarcity, which is why choice and opportunity cost become unavoidable.

Sample answer: Yes, too many wants create problems, because my family's income is fixed while my list of wants keeps growing. If we spend on every want, either something we truly need is delayed or our savings go, and there is nothing left for an emergency. Wants also draw on resources like water and fuel that the chapter says are limited. At the same time I would not say wants are bad — they push producers to make better and cheaper things. The sensible position is to meet needs first, choose among wants by asking what each one costs me in terms of what I give up, and accept that not all of them can be met.

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