UPSC Prelims 2021 CSAT Paper II · Q14 of 79 Comprehension medium

Passage

Passage – 4 A social and physical environment riddled with poverty, inequities, unhygienic and insanitary conditions generates the risk of infectious diseases. Hygiene has different levels : personal, domestic and community hygiene. There is no doubt that personal cleanliness brings down the rate of infectious diseases. But the entry of the market into this domain has created a false sense of security that gets conditioned and reinforced by the onslaught of advertisements. Experience in Western Europe shows that along with personal hygiene, general improvements in environmental conditions and components like clean water, sanitation and food security have brought down infant/child death/infection rates considerably. The obsession with hand hygiene also brings in the persisting influence of the market on personal health, overriding or marginalising the negative impact on ecology and the emergence of resistant germs.

On the basis of the passage given above, the following assumptions have been made : 1. People who are obsessed with personal hygiene tend to ignore the community hygiene. 2. Emergence of multi-drug resistant germs can be prevented by personal cleanliness. 3. Entry of the market in the domain of hygiene increases the risk of infectious diseases. 4. Scientific and micro-level interventions are not sufficient to bring down the burden of infectious diseases. 5. It is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against infectious diseases. Which of the above assumptions are valid ?

  1. (a) 1 and 2 only
  2. (b) 3 and 4 only
  3. (c) 4 and 5 only ✓ UPSC's answer
  4. (d) 1, 2 and 4 only

Why the answer is (c)

• Assumption 4 is valid because the passage states that personal hygiene alone is insufficient and that 'general improvements in environmental conditions' (community level) are required to considerably reduce infection rates, implying micro-level interventions alone are not enough.

• Assumption 5 is valid because the passage highlights that Western Europe's success in reducing infant/child death rates came from combining personal hygiene with 'general improvements in environmental conditions' like clean water and sanitation, which are public health measures.

• The passage explicitly links the reduction of infectious disease rates to these broader environmental and community-level improvements rather than just individual actions.

• Therefore, assumptions 4 and 5 correctly reflect the passage's argument that community hygiene and public health measures are essential and effective in combating infectious diseases.

Why the other options are wrong

(a) 1 and 2 only
Assumption 2 is invalid because the passage states that the obsession with hand hygiene leads to the 'emergence of resistant germs,' not that personal cleanliness prevents them.
(b) 3 and 4 only
Assumption 3 is invalid because the passage states the market creates a 'false sense of security,' not that it directly increases the risk of infectious diseases.
(d) 1, 2 and 4 only
Assumption 1 is invalid because the passage does not state that people obsessed with personal hygiene ignore community hygiene, only that the market creates a false sense of security.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2021, held on 10 October 2021. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

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