Gross national Happiness.

Gross National Happiness.

G

ross National Happiness is a concept which received resounding embrace all over the world. At the outset, the world’s economist, educationist, activist and leaders were left in awe and wonder. Gradually, it gained acceptance and subsequently many countries adopted this concept in their development policies.

 It’s a term coined by our beloved His Majesty the fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk  in 1970s. The fourth king of Bhutan, though at young age, thought that Gross Domestic Product does not encompass all the parameters that determine people’s well-being. He envisioned that sustainable development should be more holistic. He emphasized that wellbeing of people should receive the highest priority rather than sole economic development. Thus, Gross national Happiness is one index that aptly measures county’s development unlike Gross Domestic Product.

In 1972, the King of Bhutan decided to move from Middle Ages to a sustainable, democratic country. With the support of the United Nations Development Program, he put GNH into practice. In 1999, the Centre for Bhutan Studies was created, an independent research institute for studying and developing GNH. In 2008, a new Constitution, (inspired by the Spanish one) was adopted by a democratic Parliament.

In 2006, Adrian White, a psychologist from the University of Leicester, published the World Map of Happiness. Bhutan ranked 8th, while USA was 23rd. Other large countries with low ranks included: China 82nd, India 125th, Russia 167th. Centre and Northern European countries were first (as Denmark, Switzerland or Austria). Data was collected from CIA, UNESCO, World Health Organization and other organizations.

Four GNH International Conferences have been held so far: 2004 in Bhutan, 2005 in Canada, 2007 in Thailand, last one being in November 2009 in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil.

The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: 1.Good governance,,2. Sustainable socio-economic development, 3. Cultural preservation, 4.Environmental conservation. Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values. The nine domains are: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. The domains represents each of the components of wellbeing of the Bhutanese people, and the term ‘wellbeing’ here refers to fulfilling conditions of a ‘good life’ as per the values and principles laid down by the concept of Gross National Happiness.

The concept of GNH was very much put into test when the former government exercised profound importance on it. The concept was introduced in schools, education sector, construction sectors, cultural sectors and in fact all the places.It helped every individual of different organization to reach their goal.It helped them work selflessly but wear smile at the end of the day. The data colletecd in 2010 showed that:

ü  men are more happier than women in average.

ü   In urban areas, 50% of people are happy; in rural areas it is 37%.

ü  Urban areas do better in health, living standards and education. Rural areas do better in community vitality, cultural resilience, and good governance.

ü  Happiness is higher among people with a primary education or above than among those with no formal education, but higher education does not affect GNH very much.

ü  The happiest people by occupation include civil servants, monks/anim, and GYT/DYT members.   Interestingly, the unemployed are happier than corporate employees, housewives, farmers or the national work force.

ü  Unmarried people and young people are among the happiest.

ü  There is quite a lot of equality across Dzongkhags, so there is not a strict ranking among them. The happiest Dzongkhags include Paro, Sarpang, Dagana, Haa, Thimphu, Gasa, Tsirang, Punakha, Zhemgang, and Chukha.

ü  The least happy Dzongkhag was SamdrupJonkhar.

Even today, concept of GNH is evergreen. The present government firmly out voiced to inculcate and practise GNH within the country. I personally feel that for the country like Bhutan, grappling with challenges at hand is the most important to realize existence of GNH. The challenges are unemployment, the soured economic situation and curbing of Corruption. There lies paramount task ahead of us. It includes bringing down unemployment rate in the country. On contrary, unemployment rate has increased from 7.3 to 9.6 recently. So it will require our government and concerned authorities to put in earnest effort to give full employment as they promised.

Secondly, the economic situation of the country has to be improved. Though present government effort is quite visible by formulating Economic Stimulus Plan and injecting money in appropriate place to ease liquidity crunch, but still lot more can be done. The is no time for government to remain complacent. I hope our government would come up with most appropriate idea to address it.

Thirdly, its corruption. We are lucky that our scene of corruption is not as severe as in India but even a small corruption would be adverse for us. If corruption is not nipped in its bud, it would topple our country. I salute Anti-Corruption Commission for their selfless effort for standing firm on their motto. The motto of “Zero Tolerance to Corruption”.

In the bottom line,to Gross national Happiness to shine in our country.The top bereaucrat and leaders should tackle the pressing issues confronting our country.Though there are numerous issues to be worked but the most important is as aforementioned. So let us join our hand in hand, contribute little in our own way and make Bhutan a kingdom admired and appreciated by people around the globe.Let the world recognize us as people ingrained in happiness but not as the people seeking happiness.

By:

Ram Bahadur Darjee.

Courtesy for data : grossnationalhappiness.com