📚 CBSE Grade-10 Study Guide
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Social Science (087) — AI-generated practice question

AI-generated practice question — model-generated for extra practice, not a previous-year CBSE board question.

Q1. [3] medium thorough-understanding
Why did the actual chance of getting a job in a city factory depend heavily on a worker's personal connections rather than simply their skill or availability?
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 14:59 · grounding rag
Model Answer

Getting a job in a city factory was rarely based on skill alone because entry into mills was controlled by a jobber — a trusted worker employed by industrialists to recruit new hands. The jobber brought people from his own village, helped them settle in the city, and arranged jobs. Since the number of job-seekers always exceeded vacancies, workers had to rely on these personal connections. Over time, jobbers demanded money and gifts in return for their favour, meaning a worker without the right contact — or unable to pay — had little chance regardless of ability.

Source: Chapter 4, Section 4.2 — Where Did the Workers Come From?

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Explanation

The examiner looks for three key points (one per mark):

  1. Demand > supply — jobs were scarce, competition was high.
  2. The role of the jobber as gatekeeper to factory employment.
  3. The jobber's abuse of power — demanding money/gifts, showing that personal connections (not skill) determined entry.

Cite the jobber system explicitly; that is the heart of this answer. Source E (Vasant Parkar's quote about workers paying jobbers) is good supporting evidence if you want to add a line, but the core explanation must cover the three points above.

Previous-year CBSE Grade 10 board exam questions, organised by subject and chapter, each with a model answer — free to read and print.