Quest for joyous progress

Two very significant and relevant international reports have been recently released—the World Happiness Report (WHR) 2023-24 and the Human Development Report (HDR) 2024. Both are indicators of the level of development of various countries and the quality of life of the people living there. The HDR ranks countries on three factors—the average healthy life expectancy, mean years of schooling, and quality of life. It is a measure of health, education and quality of life of people living in different countries, and is based on data that is available with the countries concerned. The WHR, on the other hand, is based on a Gallup poll survey where questions are put to a representative sample size in each country on five variables, which are: healthy life expectancy, social security (which means one has someone to count on), freedom to make life choices, generosity and perception about corruption. In addition, there is a sixth variable—gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which is taken from the data available with various countries.

India’s rank in the WHR is 126th out of 143 countries, meaning that India is amongst the unhappiest countries in the world. One may have issues with this ranking, particularly since Pakistan and Nepal are shown as being happier than India, which is a little difficult to accept. However, these rankings are based on a survey, and it is also a fact that ever since the world happiness surveys started in 2012, India has consistently been ranked at the bottom of the pile. Finland has been ranked as the happiest country for at least last five years, and has maintained the top position in WHR 2024 as well. It is followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Israel. The report points out that the survey regarding Israel was done before the Hamas attack and the resultant conflict. While the United Kingdom is at the 20th place, the USA and Germany have been dropped out of the top 20 for the first time, ranking 23rd and 24th respectively.

This year, the WHR has also tried to make a correlation of age with happiness in different countries. It finds that there is a lower level of happiness in people born after 1980. However, the association between age and happiness varies according to region. For instance, in general, the young are happier than the old in many regions, while in Western Europe, the happiness level is the same for old and young. In North America, the old are happier than the younger people. For India, it was found that old age is associated with higher life satisfaction but older women have a lower level of life satisfaction than older men. The caste factor comes into play for India, with upper castes being generally happier than other castes. Also, those who have completed at least secondary education are happier than those who have not been educated. For India, as well as for the entire world, the WHR 2024 finds that there is an increase in the inequality of happiness.

In the ranking of countries on happiness among young people below the age of 30 for the period 2021-2023, the WHR finds that Lithuania gets the highest rank, followed by Israel, Serbia, Iceland, and Denmark. Finland is at the 7th position, while the UK slips down to the 32nd position, and most surprisingly, the USA gets the 62nd rank. China is 79th, while India is once again at the lower end, being ranked 127th. WHR 2024 then ranked countries according to happiness for old people whose age is greater than 60 years. Denmark turned out to be the country having the happiest old people, followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. In this ranking, the USA is at the 10th position, and China is 30th. This shows that older people in the USA and China are far happier than the younger ones. Unfortunately, India continues to languish at the 121st position. It seems that the old and the young are equally unhappy in India, though the report says that the young are happier than middle-aged people in India. The happiness ranked for the old people in India is slightly better than that for the younger ones.

The HDR 2024 also does not present a good picture about India, with the Indian rank being 134 out of 192. These rankings should act as a wake-up call for our public policymakers. It should set them thinking that in terms of GDP we are the 5th largest economy in the world, poised to become the 3rd largest by 2028. India is being recognised all over the world for its annual growth rate of about 7 per cent, and is currently the fastest-growing economy in the world. In terms of per capita income, India ranks 140th in the world, and this could be a possible explanation for the low happiness rankings. Also, the inequality, both social and economic, is high in India, which might be contributing to a lower level of happiness. The HDR rank clearly shows that health and education are the most important components of human development, and India must prioritise the both in its development agenda. We must be concerned with an overall improvement in the quality of life of the people rather than just be satisfied with high GDP and growth rate. Many thinkers and economists have argued that GDP is an imperfect measure of development because it does not take into account all that is important for improving the quality of human life. Simon Kuznets, who has done pioneering work in studying the development of countries, was clear that GDP was limited in trying to explain development. Kuznets wrote, “the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income.” The most scathing attack on GDP came from Bobby Kennedy, who was a candidate for the president of the United States. He said, “GDP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything but that which makes life worthwhile.”

Bhutan introduced a gross national happiness index several years ago. The United Nations has also recognized the importance of the happiness index as a measure of human welfare and has declared March 20 as the International Day of Happiness. India must also consider domains such as health, education, diversity, resilience, good governance, environment, and living standards in policymaking if it aims for greater happiness, higher human development index, improved quality of life, and a positive sense of well-being among its people. Despite concerns about the methodology used to compute the index, we cannot deny that Indian policymakers must strive to make India a happier country.

The writer is an ex-Chief Secretary, Govt of Uttar Pradesh. Views expressed are personal