PremiumEven though our happiness level may be too abstract a measure to permit a direct policy response, we need to ask ourselves whether an emphasis on headline numbers that let India claim the ‘fastest-growing major economy’ tag could lead to complacency on what ultimately matters more
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Even as India makes strides in various fields, all that progress appears not to be raising Indian happiness levels much. The country ranks No. 136 among 146 countries on the latest chart of the ‘World Happiness Report’ released by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Though we’re up three places from last year, we still fare worse than all South Asian nations bar Afghanistan, which is at the bottom of the table. On top is Finland for the fifth year in a row. The US is at No. 16.
The report is based on a Gallup poll of how people assess their happiness combined with economic data, but this year it also used inputs from trackers of emotions on social media. The covid pandemic had sharp before-and-after effects: anxiety and sadness increased in many countries. Even though our happiness level may be too abstract a measure to permit a direct policy response, we need to ask ourselves whether an emphasis on headline numbers that let India claim the “fastest-growing major economy" tag could lead to complacency on what ultimately matters more. Any gap between how well our people and the economy are doing demands investigation.
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