Expert Speak India Matters
Published on Apr 02, 2019
Even when people are relatively better off than before, why has their happiness not increased?
Why Indians are unhappy despite doubled GDP

Many may not have noticed that the International Day of Happiness was on 20 March this year. On the occasion, the 7th Annual World Happiness Report was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network of the United Nations. The International Day of Happiness was fixed by the UN General Assembly in 2012. The founder was UN advisor Jayme Illien, an orphan rescued from the streets of Kolkata by Mother Teresa’s International Mission of Hope Charities. He was adopted and educated by an American woman Anna Belle Illien.

The Happiness Report is based on data from 156 countries about ‘how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.’ The Happiness Index ranks countries on the basis of questions from the World Gallup poll. The results are correlated to income, healthy life longevity, generosity, freedom, social support and absence of corruption.

While India’s GDP has doubled in the last decade, its average happiness has gone down by about 1.2 points, according to the Report’s Happiness Index. Prime Minister Modi promised Achhe Din five years ago but have they actually come by?

India’s rank, according to the Happiness Index, has plunged from 133rd position in 2018 to 140th in 2019 though there has been no recession or huge national calamity. Pakistan’s higher 67th position, however, remains a dilemma.

Even when people are relatively better off than before, why has their happiness not increased? Clearly the correlation between happiness and wealth is weak. According to the report, of the 125 countries for which good data exist, 43 have seen GDP per person and happiness move in opposite direction.

In the world, however, most happy countries are also high income countries. Finland is the happiest country followed by other Nordic countries — Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, New Zealand, Austria and Canada. But many more variables could have been added to make the index more weighty.

Even with higher incomes than before, people remain unhappy because of factors like rapid urbanisation and congestion in cities, environmental pollution and problems of commute.

In India, why are people less happy today than five years ago? Looking around big cities like Delhi, there are ample reasons for people feeling hassled and unhappy. Even the report admits there has been an increase in negative emotions, including worry, anger and sadness in all countries. Even with higher incomes than before, people remain unhappy because of factors like rapid urbanisation and congestion in cities, environmental pollution and problems of commute. People worry on many fronts, specially when bringing up children in big cities. There is the big question of law and order and safety regarding women. There are worries about food and water safety. People are insecure about their health because the question of cost of treatment plagues their minds.

There is no doubt that social security and the welfare state of Scandinavian countries and the EU has a big role to play in raising the level of people’s happiness. If people are covered by a social safety net, they have little to worry about healthcare, education, unemployment or old age pension.

People are happy when they have secure jobs and a regular flow of income. They are happy to see justice being meted out to the guilty. In India, every day we are witnessing robber barons getting away scot free after defrauding banks of crores of rupees and corruption at all levels. When people like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya escaped abroad after borrowing huge sums of money from public sector banks, ordinary people felt very unhappy and angry.

Growing inequality and seeing the rich and famous having fancy weddings and lavish parties at home and abroad do make ordinary people unhappy. The Scandinavian countries and Holland are very egalitarian in comparison and there are not many people whose lifestyles are in stark contrast to the lifestyles of people around them.

The poverty in India may have come down quite significantly but still we have millions of very poor and nearly poor who are just above the poverty line. Rahul Gandhi’s promise of giving Rs 6000 per month to the very poor therefore has an appeal. Aspirations are high on the other hand due to the increased use of mobile phones, internet and social media but fulfilment of desires is scarce.

The poverty in India may have come down quite significantly, but still we have millions of very poor and nearly poor who are just above the poverty line.

How does this Happiness Index translate into the voting pattern in the upcoming elections? A one-point increase in life satisfaction is associated with 2 percent increase in propensity to vote. According to the report, happier people are not only more likely to engage in politics but also are more likely to vote for the incumbent parties. And the incumbent parties generally receive a highest vote share when more buoyant is the election year economy.

In the case of India’s economy, no one can say it is stagnant. Yet there are many points of dissatisfaction felt by the common man. The legal system is clogged. Those engaged in agriculture are unhappy about the unremunerative prices and low incomes. Due to the stressed banking system, investment remains low resulting in declining corporate profits.

Lack of adequate affordable housing is making millions of slum dwellers unhappy. Lives of people in the informal sector engaging 90 per cent of the labour force are not happy due to job insecurity and dismal conditions of work. Industrial growth is lacklustre and hence rise in unemployment. According to another recent survey (conducted between May to July 2018) by Pew Research Centre (US), 76 percent Indians are unhappy due to lack of employment opportunities and 73 percent are unhappy due to rise in prices. Replacement of humans by machinery, AI and automation is taking place rendering rural women and men as well as urban unskilled labour jobless.

All these are adding to the problems of the common people, detracting them from the quest for happiness.

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David Rusnok

David Rusnok

David Rusnok Researcher Strengthening National Climate Policy Implementation (SNAPFI) project DIW Germany

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