By Florine Roche

Mangaluru, Sep 26: It is said that it is the little joys of life that matter the most for people. We Indians take pride in our incomparable diversity, cultural pluralism, peerless ethos and multitudinous festivities and celebrations. We have festivals round the year and we take great pride and happiness in celebrating them with gay abandon and with joyfulness. Our weddings and other celebrations known for their fun factor have attained global fame. Being happy in our own municipality despite a pile of troubles and problems is inherent in our culture.

However, the recently released Annual World Happiness report is quite contrary to what is generally perceived that we Indians are the most happiest people in the world. Much to the disenchantment and consternation of most Indians our great country has slipped 11 places as compared to last year in the happiness index for 2018 according to the Annual Happiness Report. From 122 in 2017 India is now placed at 133 out of the 156 countries of the world that formed part of the survey to judge happiness index.

What makes the finding of this report quite alarming is the fact that our neighbouring countries like Pakisthan, Nepal, Srilanka and Bangladesh are placed at a higher level vis a vis India. Going by the report most Indians must be wondering whether the people of this democratic country are really unhappy as compared to other countries including our neighbours. Or can we brush it aside saying it is as a lopsided one on a subject that cannot be quantified and hence we don’t have to pay too much attention to it. It can be also a timely warning reminding us that we have to rethink on the ‘happiness model’ and set our priorities right by making concerted efforts to make our people happier?

As per the report Finland is the happiest country in the world followed by Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland. Burundi in East Africa which is facing civil war, is the unhappiest country among the 156 countries in the world. Central African Republic, South Sudan, Tanzania, Yemen and Rwanda find their place above Burundi.

The World Happiness Report is being published and released annually by Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations, which has been empanelled to deal with the environmental challenges facing the globe. This report is being published from 2012 with the principle objective of measuring the subjective well-being of people focusing on the quality of growth. The idea is to give an impetus to factors contributing to the happiness of the people and then bring about necessary changes in that direction.

Before we jump the gun and come out with all plausible causes and resorting to blame game for the ‘unhappiness tag’ of Indians let us first see what happiness is all about and how the World Happiness Report decided on the happiness module of the people of different countries of the world. To do that it is necessary to know what is ‘happiness’ is all about. Happiness is said to be a state of mind and relate to life satisfaction and moments of happiness due to a feeling of positive emotions. Naturally negative emotions like sadness, anxiety, violence and anger generally make people unhappy.

Let us now come to the most important aspect of this happiness report i.e. the criterion or the variable or the key factors that played a key role in deciding the happiness level of different countries. The report took into consideration six factors namely income, freedom, life expectancy, social support, corruption perception and generosity i.e. charity. Naturally the Scandinavian countries which are known for their high income, low population and long life expectancy came on the top of the index chart. These countries have a balanced set of social and institutional support to help lead a quality life.

Naturally India being a huge country with a huge human resource, both skilled and unskilled, mass corruption, inequality, poverty and other social and cultural challenges, is not in a position to even come closer to the quality of life experienced by those countries which are declared as the happiest in the world. Diversity being India’s hallmark wherein people of diverse faiths, caste, creed, religion, culture and variety of languages living together as a nation it is not easy to have similar quality of life enjoyed by smaller but developed nations. With India’s complex demography, such surveys are a far cry from the reality because it is grossly impossible to do a realistic survey on the parameters the agency took into consideration. In a multi cultural, multi religious and multi-lingual country like India it is highly impossible to present a clear picture or to do justice to a survey on the qualitative aspect of life. Naturally even countries like SAARC countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh which are economically socially and politically less developed have scored over India on the happiness index.

Corruption being one of the criteria used to judge the happiness level India is surely bound to go down in the ranking. Corruption pervades every aspect of our life and all citizens are collectively and individually responsible for it. We cannot blame others or the government alone for being a corrupt nation. Inclusion of the generosity factor as a criterion for measuring happiness level of the people is also unreasonable especially when it comes to Asian countries.

All said and done, though the report cannot be taken as a true indicator of the unhappiness we certainly have a long way to go to go to improve the quality of life of our people. Being rich alone is not reason enough to be happy because the richest country US is ranked 18th in the list having slipped 4 positions from 2017 and is followed by United Kingdom. Happiness, contentment and wellness have to go together, as they are the parameters of the social and economic progress achieved by a nation and therefore we cannot ignore these factors altogether.

Let us not break our heads on the report and instead concentrate our efforts to find happiness in smallest things in life. Let me end this on a happy note by recalling the famous song ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy…… by Bobby Mcferrin.