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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Nobody’s Property by Lola Nayar

How do you quantify happiness in a diverse nation like ours? Growth levels, value-based structural changes, what can affect it?

Life is Elsewhere?

    Bhutan’s GNH: Based on the Buddhist doctrine of harmony with environment and fellow beings besides material comfort
    UNDP Human Development Report: Ranks nations on quality of life—adjusted real income, life expectancy, education etc
    World Values Survey: Started in 1995, it explores impact of social and political changes on people’s values, beliefs, freedom of choice
    World Happiness Survey: LSE-led survey based on spending power and qualify of life found that money can’t buy happiness
    World Map of Happiness: Survey of people’s satisfaction with life based on social network, career, political and economic system

***

Are you happy? A simple yet loaded question thrown back at this reporter, out on an expedition to tackle an age-old problem economists are still seeking an answer to: how on earth do you quantify happiness? As children are wont to do, one can use both hands to illustrate how happy (or not) you are. But as adults, quantifying happiness is no easy task, not the least because that slippery “state of mind” may not last long, even if it lingers. If that’s tough, how does one even begin measuring the happiness of an entire nation? Should we even bother trying?

Over the last few decades, happiness hunters have used various yardsticks, including per capita income, employment, health, education and lately environment to measure happiness, wellness and contentment. Given that “inclusive growth” is the mantra right now, there are many voices that are urging India to consider other, softer measures. Like Bhutan, for instance.

“My big fear is that pretty soon the National Advisory Council will come up with the bright idea of putting in a call for a constitutional amendment for a right to happiness,” is the first reaction of economist Surjit Bhalla. Contending that there is no relationship between GDP growth and happiness, “which is purely a personal affair”, Bhalla says his fear is not without basis, considering in the last few years various legislations have been used to ensure rights of people to information, education and employment.

Another expert disagrees, saying this is a question best asked of politicians. Professor Abhijit Sen, member, Planning Commission, states that measuring growth beyond GDP “is desirable if a politician may want to know whether the citizens are satisfied or not”. That explains why politicians have fuelled the many studies—both national and global—on this topic. Most of them generally look at what people don’t have, through objective tests like level of education, health facilities and so on.

But that’s a tricky slope. Based on his field studies, Dr Girishwar Misra, Fulbright-Nehru visiting lecturer on cultural psychology at Delhi University, warns that a judgement of happiness must not be equated with need satisfaction. “After a certain point, the relationship becomes variable. People with moderate or high income levels may experience the same level of happiness,” says Misra. At the same time, driven by social comparisons, there are people who continually feel deprived despite being comfortably placed.

Unfortunately, with consumerism becoming a yardstick for economic growth, the social, ecological and cultural support systems (critical mediators that add to happiness) are gradually disappearing. Where social support systems like friends and family exist, even a poor person can be happy—or due to lack of it, even a rich person can surely be unhappy.

“Happiness is not a measure of growth, it is a measure of people’s feelings of well-being, and includes not just material living levels (which is what GDP is about) but other personal concerns like family, health, job satisfaction. In that respect, it’s a more comprehensive measure of well-being than GDP,” says Prof Richard A. Easterlin, a pioneer in happiness economics. Besides our income and aspirations, our quality of life depends on the healthcare, education and employment opportunities, democratic rights and freedom, clean environment, rule of law, social network among others.

That’s why economist V.R. Panchamukhi feels “it is worth giving some value-based structural changes to (India’s) growth study”. Pointing to the poor civic, health and education infrastructure in Mantralayam, the temple town in Andhra Pradesh where he lives, Panchamukhi says that India is going on a jobless, voiceless, ruthless, rootless and futureless growth track that the UNDP Human Development Report 1996 had warned as detrimental to human development.

Whether it is industrialisation of rural areas or protecting people’s rights, the government has been found to lack long-term vision. That’s why industries are able to pollute rivers and denude forests and why government spends crores in vain to rectify the damage. Similarly, embracing globalisation without creating opportunities for young people to fulfil their growth aspirations is a major reason for the rise in corruption. All this is not a recipe for long-term happiness.

“Governments need both subjective and objective indicators in assessing the well-being of citizens. Hence, while it is important to know politically whether or not people are happy, you cannot depend only on expressed satisfaction in defining public policy,” warns Bina Agarwal, director of Institute of Economic Growth and member of the high-profile Sarkozy Commission (which advocated looking beyond GDP per capita for assessing quality of life). Separating short-term feelings from long-term satisfaction is thus crucial.

Whether in an urban slum colony or in a poor hinterland village, signs of happiness and joy among inhabitants in simple things will be evident despite the struggle to make ends meet and survive without basic amenities. Cautioning against equating satisfaction with happiness, anthropologist Dr Savyasaachi stresses, “Economists should leave the concept of happiness aside and try not to quantify it or else people may stop recognising it.”

His fear is not unfounded—happiness is often equated with material possessions and fulfilment of aspirations, not traditional concepts of joy and contentment. There are other complexities: Atanu Dey, chief economist with an IT services company, states that while surveys can lead to some conclusions, they are worthless if you compare two sets of populations. Moreover, there is no validity in saying someone is happier than the other “as there are no correlates that are measurable”. Measuring life satisfaction and well-being, on the other hand, can still be quantified.

Comparing countries on the yardstick of happiness is also difficult, says Easterlin, as “we still do not know how much differences in culture affect the results”. Given that one man’s happiness can often be another man’s sorrow, the debate on the need to measure happiness remains inconclusive—and will probably do so for some time to come. But measuring wellness and quality of life is always possible. Its time has come.