Sufferings in India doubled in recent years: Gallup poll

India Mainly Drives Deterioration of Well-Being in South Asia

Suffering in India has more than doubled in recent years with one in every four Indian reported to be bearing the brunt of the nations poor economy in recent years, a latest Gallup poll said.

Increase in sufferings in India has also resulted in increase in sufferings in South Asia, the latest report from the American opinion poll agency said. Suffering, on average, has increased worldwide in the past several years, and nowhere more than in South Asia. One in seven adults worldwide rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering in 2012. South Asia led the world in suffering at 24%, followed by 21% in the Balkans and the Middle East and North Africa.

Gallup said, The massive increase in suffering among South Asians is largely attributable to negative developments in India, the region's giant. Average suffering in India more than doubled between 2006 to 2008 and 2010 to 2012. In 2012, a full quarter of Indians were suffering. The significant deterioration in Indians' well-being is likely to be rooted in the country's disappointing economic performance. India's growth rate has now sunk from 9.4% in the first quarter of 2010 to 4.4% in the second quarter of 2013, the worst quarterly rate since 2002.

Gallup said the Indian government's failure to cut graft and red tape, as well as to liberalise its markets for labour, energy and land explains why the World Bank continues to rank the country as a bad place to do business. The report further added, Now New Delhi is trying a different strategy to improve the wellbeing of its people. It just passed the Right to Food Act to provide food at subsidized rates to 71% of its population.

Gallup survey noted that although global economic growth rebounded in 2010 after the deepest recession in decades, the pace of the world economy has been slower since 2011 than before the crash -- too slow to create enough good jobs for ever more young adults entering the labor market. This in turn likely led to a global increase in suffering.

It is important for leaders in nations where suffering is highest to take a hard look at what they must change in their countries to improve how their people perceive their own lives and their future.

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