Open Forum
New Delhi, 6 May 2015
World
Happiness Report
TODAY’S
INDIANS UNHAPPIER
By Proloy
Bagchi
In the World Happiness Report of
2015 of the United Nations on 158 countries, India has slipped from 111th
place in 2013 to 117th. This, obviously, means that people in India have
become unhappier during the last two years. The report covers the period from
2012 to 2014 and takes into account not just individual satisfaction and wealth
but also broad contentment that includes social support, high healthy life
expectancy, freedom to make life choices, perceptions of corruption,
pro-sociality – the kind of conduct that may include honesty, benevolence,
cooperation and trustworthiness.
With Switzerland expectedly topping the
list, Nordic countries make up the top five. South Asia generally is in the
bottom half and what is perhaps a reason for concern is that India has been ranked below Pakistan and Bangladesh – two countries that of
late have been facing Islamic terror and yet their happiness quotient has come
out to be higher. Bhutan, which practices the concept of Gross National
Happiness and inspired the study through the UN General Assembly, has been
ranked 79th – higher than India, yet a not-too-high a rank, given
the head start it had in reckoning “happiness” (as against “product”) as a
metric for growth and development.
According to the Summary of the 2015
report, the world has come a long way since the first report was launched in
2012. It asserts: “Increasingly happiness is considered a proper measure of social progress
and goal of public policy. A rapidly increasing number of national and local
governments are using happiness data and research in their search for policies
that could enable people to live better lives”.
We in India, however, are not aware of
any move to collect “Happiness” data at city, State or country levels to enable
the administration to frame policies to mitigate the general feelings of
unhappiness and misery. If at all this has been done, apparently, the official
organisations responsible for collection of such data have been doing so in a
surreptitious manner. Not a word seemed to have been breathed to the media.
That, of course, is another story
and not material to this piece. What, however, needs to be pointed out is that
over the last three or four years the method of measurement of “Happiness” has
been refined. The 2012 report was based basically on the assessment of
“Happiness”, whereas the succeeding reports have, in addition, assessed the
feelings of “Wellbeing” among those who were surveyed.
“Wellbeing” is being measured in the
UK
and OECD countries and perhaps measurement of “wellbeing”, especially
“subjective wellbeing”, will be true reflection of people’s quality of life –
as against the “gross domestic product”. We know how during the years of high
growth rates in the country’s GDP quality of life of vast numbers of people did
not improve in any way. Poverty, mal and under-nourishment, high infant and
maternal mortality rates have continued to haunt the nation.
The report has been produced on the
basis of some data that are already available with a few international
organisations and others were made available by Gallop World Poll (GWP) against
eight constructs, viz. (1) “GDP per capita” in terms of Purchasing Power Parity
taken from World Development Indicators released by World Bank in 2014, (2)
“Social Support” available for individuals is the national average of binary
responses (of either 0 or 1) to GWP question, (3) data on “Healthy life
expectancy” has again been borrowed from World Health Organisation and World
Development Indicators (4) “Freedom to make life choices” is again a national
average of binary responses to the GWP question “Are you satisfied or
dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life”, (5)
“Generosity” is the national average of the responses to the GWP question
“whether you donated money in the past month”, (6) “Perceptions of corruption”
are again national average of binary responses to GWP poll to the question
“whether corruption was widespread in the government and also within business”
(7) “Positive affect” is defined as previous day’s affect measures of
happiness, laughter and enjoyment” and (8) “Negative affect” is defined
as the average of previous-day affect measures for worry, sadness and anger.
As of the eight above, GDP per
capita in terms of Purchasing Power Parity and figures on “Healthy Life
Expectancy” have been taken from relevant international organisations and there
is some kind of finality about them since these are based on national data fed
to them. Predictably, per capita GDP and healthy life expectancy are depressed
and have apparently pulled the country down a few notches. Life expectancy was
stated in January 2014 to have risen in cases of both the genders. But “Healthy
life expectancy” is quite another matter – given the state of environment,
sanitation and healthcare in the country. A google search failed to reveal India’s
“Healthy Life Expectancy”.
Brief comments on each of the six
constructs are as follows: Prevalence of “social support” is generally
insignificant. It is the lucky few who are able to network and can expect
support in times of physical or emotional distress. But indifference of general
public to distressed fellow human is graphically exemplified by accident
victims or molested females in public spaces in the country who are left to
deal with their misfortunes themselves. Any kind of “Social Support” cannot be
taken as a given in India
like in more developed countries.
Similarly, the freedom to make “Life
Choices” of a largely poor, illiterate/semi-literate and unskilled population
residing in a country bereft of job opportunities has got to be restricted.
And, if one does not have enough to live a dignified life how can he be
expected to show “Generosity” by making donations? “Public and business
corruption” cases have, of late, caught the attention of everyone. Almost every
day new cases of fraud of mindboggling amounts are revealed. When huge amounts
of public money find their way into private pockets the probability of
“Happiness” of vast numbers of people would necessarily recede. Besides, in
rural or urban life “Negatives” top the “Positives”. Barring a few financially
well off, the masses, by and large, get back home harried and distressed after
their daily struggle.
Though inspired by Bhutan which is
trying to shun consumerism, the report is basically meant for economically
advanced countries which, after becoming prosperous, are now looking for
“Happiness and Wellbeing” of their peoples. In a populous country like India with
illiterate/semiliterate or unskilled population that is generally engrossed in
somehow making a living, such reports have, at best, only academic value.
Several countries reportedly are
increasingly making use of these to fill the gaps in their respective systems
to better quality of life of their peoples. Economic wellbeing enables them to
study the problems, if any, and change gears if needed. In India, surely,
nothing would be done on the basis of this report just as no action was,
apparently, taken on the 2012 and 2013 reports. Placing the country at 117th
position, therefore, seems very charitable. “Happiness” and “Wellbeing” of
Indian masses do not yet figure in the lexicon of Indian administration.
---INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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