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| Much toil ahead in mapping happiness |
| Malvika Joshi / New Delhi Jun 27, 2011, 00:44 IST |
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How happy are we? The question, though subjective, has created a stir in the community of economists, more so in the community of welfare economists. Indians are yet to develop a way for measuring it. For that matter, few countries have.
The happiness index, mooted by the king of Bhutan in 1972 and formally implemented by 2008, has already been incorporated by global organisations like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Developed countries such as Great Britain and France have this index parallel to the already existing indices.
Many others are working in the direction of implementing it. However, the concept has yet to take clear shape in many countries, including India. The reasons range from the subjective nature of its components to the lack of empirical formula and accuracy.
K V Bhanu Murthy, dean, faculty of commerce and business, Delhi School of Economics said, “There will not be any problems in implementing an index measuring happiness once the fundamentals and methodical issues are solved. Then, for India, a country with a long tradition of statistical estimates, it will be easy.”
However, Murthy, whose approach has been published in he UN Compendium of Composite Indices, also noted that using the happiness index for comparison purposes would pose several problems. He said, “Components of the index used by the OECD include social relationships, which differ in definition from country to country. What is considered as social relationship in India may be considered social interference in western countries. Thus, the concept needs to be re-worked.”
DEFINITION ISSUES
In India, the index still comes out as an outlandish concept, as only a few economists are ready to embrace it. The research conducted by economists in other countries says the level of happiness is increasing in the country. However, according to Adrian White, a British analytic social psychologist, India ranks 125th in the world in terms of happiness and Denmark tops the list.
According to S K Das of the Central Statistics Office, "India is not doing much on this front right now. But we will be working closely with OECD to develop a similar index."
The growing criticism of GDP as a measure of prosperity has given rise to such studies across the world. Pronab Sen, the country’s former chief statistician, said: "In India, the National Human Development Index is the closest to the happiness index concept. As of now, no one is actively working in this direction."
Supporting the idea of supplementing GDP with an index measuring happiness, Sen said “Progress is multi-dimensional and such an index is a great idea. I believe India should get prepared to discuss the concept in the next OECD meet.”
The National Human Development Index, borrows methodolgy to measure human development from the United Nations and modifies it to reflect Indian conditions. It includes indicators like economic , educational and health attainment, demography, amenities, governance and crime. According to an official, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is trying to collect data for the purpose of formulating a happiness index like Bhutan and the OECD, but in a more structured way.
OTHER TRIES
The OECD’s approach to measure happiness, suggested by renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz, involves 11 components — housing, incomes, employment, social relationships, education, environment, administration of institutions, health, general satisfaction, security and the balance between work and family.
Although housing, income and employment do not require special treatment and can be measured by existing tools, the others are difficult to measure due to their ordinal nature and the criteria for measurement . For instance, the education system can be good in figurative terms but if it does not create employability, then it will create limited happiness. Security standards can be good for men but not for women.
Bhutan, inventor of the concept, measures its policy decisions on their impact on culture, physical exercise and stress levels on a scale of one to four. The total of these should be more than nine for policy to be acceptable.
Many theories have been formulated by economists for measuring the relationship between general happiness and economic prosperity. However, a concrete and universal formula for a happiness index is yet to come.
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