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Gross National Happiness Index for India

Happiness India

In India we measure economic health by GDP.GDP is commonly used as an indicator of the economic health of a country, as well as to gauge a country’s standard of living. Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time.

It is good to measure GDP of country which can give idea about economy. But I have come across country “Bhutan” which measure growth based on Happiness Index. They believe that “The essence of the philosophy of Gross National Happiness is the peace and happiness of our people and the security and sovereignty of the nation.”

The GNH Index is meant to orient the people and the nation towards happiness, primarily by improving the conditions of not yet- happy people. GNH Index enables the government and others to increase GNH in two ways. It can either increase percentage of people who are happy or decrease the insufficient conditions of people who are not-yet happy.

Gross Happiness measures socioeconomic development by tracking seven development areas including the nation’s mental and emotional health. GNH value is proposed to be an index function of the total average per capita of the following measures:

  1. Economic  Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of  economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
  2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of  environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
  3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics  such as severe illnesses
  4. Mental  Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of  mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
  5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and  lawsuits
  6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints  of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
  7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

Essence of this article is not only to explain about GNH but to show if small countries like Bhutan accepts and implement such a wonderful concept why big country like India cannot. We always accept & inherit policy of big nation like USA, recent example is tax on super rich, but we never think of implementing good concept from small countries.

I propose to measure GNH along with GDP which will give overall idea about Happiness in India. I am sure in India we have many Unhappy people and result of this index will not be good at first attempt but if government actually react and make certain correction GNH result can be good for India too.

As Indian we also deserve to be Happy Indian. 

Reference: – Gross Happiness Index

Shitanshu Kapadia
Shitanshu Kapadiahttp://moneyexcel.com/
Hi, I am Shitanshu founder of moneyexcel.com. I am engaged in blogging & Digital Marketing for 10 years. The purpose of this blog is to share my experience, knowledge and help people in managing money.