Community
Topic: State, Government and Governance: Organs, Levels and the Citizen · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 9 "Family and Community"
Meaning
A community is a group of connected families or people who share something and support one another. That shared thing may be a place, an identity, a job or an interest. Communities often follow agreed rules about shared resources such as water, grazing land and forest produce. These rules are usually unwritten. They give each family secure access, but they also put duties on every family. Indian law recognises community control of such shared resources through the Forest Rights Act 2006 and PESA 1996.
Example
During the Chennai floods of 2015, people ran community kitchens to feed those who were stranded. A Residents' Welfare Association (RWA) is another kind of community. It makes its own rules but still depends on traders and municipal workers.
Don't confuse with
- Family: the family is the smallest unit, made of people related by birth or marriage. A community links many families, or people who are not related at all, through a shared place or interest.
- Government: community rules are mostly unwritten and can fail or be unfair. Government makes formal laws that apply to everyone and enforces them.