Are you Happy ? Well I don’t know , am I Happy ? you don’t need to know ; but is our country Happy ? Is INDIA HAPPY ….. NO this I can say for sure . It’s not me saying , it’s the GLOBAL HAPPINESS INDEX Rank which is concluding that . We are ranked at 140th now , out of how many … 156 Countries . Could you believe this only 16 Countries are Sad than us and even Crisis stricken VENEZUELA and Terror striken SYRIA are Happier than us .

But logically thinking ; it should not have been the case as we are the fastest growing economy in the world . That too even when we were rising on various developmental index what is going that Wrong ?
It’s not that the Sadness Insect has bitten us recently ; we were at 117 position in 2013 , slipped slowly initially , were at 133 in 2018 and now has drastically fell down to 140 . What has gone wrong in recent times that even PAKISTAN and BANGLADESH are Happier than us . I can understand that Terrorists there will be Happy seeing Crisis and Terror all over so the country’s Index may improve . Here we need to look at another strategic fact that US has also dipped in this Index form last few years and CHINA has also remained almost static in their ranks . But yes obviously still they are above us and if we look at the whole list we will find almost all developing economies quite above us .

But how can one measure Happiness , is it just Joy or Cheerfulness . NO . For this index Happiness is measured on broad 6 Variables :

GDP Per Capita : Despite our good record in this regard ; in the Happiness index we see how every citizen has been impacted . Income Inequality in our country is so High that top 1% holds 73% of country’s wealth . Just wonder what’s there for the bottom 10% ; and then ask why we are so low in the Rank .

Healthy Life Expectancy : Though we have improved from 62 to 67 years in life expectancy we are still way behind other developing countries who are having that of around 75 years . Apart from it various other variables like healthy days and disability are also taken under consideration . Also our spending on Health is way below the mark (1.4% of GDP) .

Freedom to make Life choices : Now do I need to say anything in this regard , I think we all can clearly relate this one as we all must have encountered a difference in opinion in making career choices with your parents . If one has not in this country , then either his parents are quite practical and broad minded or he is telling a Lie . Not just parents nowadays such RISHTEDAARS (Relatives) who show their bloody face once in a year but come up with dreams for the child which he is LIABLE to fulfil . Parents having too much role in each and every decision of his child even when he has quite grown up is something which instead of helping and supporting demoralizes them and makes the way ahead difficult as one is denied from taking his Passion . I can understand that the parents care and worry for the children but it should not be at that extreme level that it literally spoil the Life of the child . This report doesn’t seem that surprising when you come to know that every half an hour an Indian youth commits suicide .

Social support : While on paper we are a Democracy but in reality our minorities still have little choices of freedom . Can anyone say that they are fully free today ? . No . Schemes like MGNREGA has also failed to ensure social security out of enormous hardships from challenging economic phases . Also the way Democracy is murdered and religious intolerance has risen in the past few years has a big role in detoriating our ranks as the most drastic fall has occurred in last 2-3 years .

Perception of Corruption : It is of absolutely no doubt that Corruption is one of the biggest influencers in this data . There is little trust among us when it comes to interface with law enforcers , politicians or government officials . With rampant practice of Fraudulence and Corruption there is no further need of an explanation . Our detoriation in this rank also confirms that there is Corruption going on in the country despite it’s being kept hidden by the government .

Generosity : One reason can obviously be lack of social support at times of trouble ; our rich people don’t believe much on Donating to those who need . No doubt there are some such people but still mostly we are reluctant to share our money with the less fortunate . We were a poor nation which grew slowly so we are more concerned towards hoarding the money for ourselves even after we become better off later on . In a incident two UP Policemen left a boy die of bleeding as they didn’t wanted their Car to sustain blood stains by carrying him shows how low we have fallen .

According to our ex-President PRANAB MUKHERJEE the reason for this we not going for SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT which is a combination of social inclusion and environmental sustainability as it is closely linked to happiness . Though we have improved in various developmental measures but having a narrow vision focus on development may have given us higher GDP growth rate and helped us becoming 6th Largest Economy surpassing FRANCE but it has drastically moved our focus from social welfare , emotional and mental well being of people .

For better understanding we should study the case of NORWAY closely ; a country having minimal resources when it saw it’s Fortune changed when it found CRUDE OIL in the North Sea . To ensure that the benefits doesn’t just fall in the hands of few big business giants , it focussed towards creating a Welfare state model and when Surplus exceeded the expectations they established a OIL FUND (now the largest sovereign wealth fund) which entitled every Norwegian a Millionaire on paper . Now this is called SABKA SAATH SABKA VIKAS in reality .

Economists have similar yet different opinions on exact reason of this Sadness . DANIEL GILBERT said that once basic needs of Human gets fulfilled more money brings Stress only but never more happiness . Another reason by RICHARD LAYNET is said lack of social connect ; Loneliness is one of the biggest factors of DEPRESSIONS . It is the case that this new generation is very hardly connected with parents . Here both should be blamed ; children for not taking parents in their new world with them and parents not trying to go in their world’s either or straightaway terming theirs as Irrational , children for taking any clash with parents too much on Ego while of parents to still treat a young boy as a Child and expecting him to obey just like that neglecting what we wants at this age .

LATIN AMERICA despite struck with poverty and violence ranks quite higher in this regard ; the reason is LESSER Generation Gap . I would urge all the Youngsters reading this to spend time with your parents , you have to spare time for it , eating food with parents would be fantastic apart from other activities . It’s not just with parents being in company of your Loved one or Friends will also be effective but what one gets with parents is something they can get there only .

FINLAND , SWEDEN and DENMARK have been able to score high due to it’s Honest and Trustworthy government . Almost no corruption there also secured them too positive in COMMITMENT TO DEVELOPMENT INDEX (Attitude towards policies that can help poor countries) . FINLAND’S premiere words towards Syrian Refugees “We should all look into the Mirror and ask how should we help” . Here we should also look ourselves in mirror and think that what have we done to Refugees coming into our country ; CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT BILL or the arrogant Protests against ROHINGYAS and Inhuman attitude towards them under the banner of Self-Obsession and Pseudo Nationalism .

It was very appreciable and can say historic of Delhi Government to bring HAPPINESS in the curriculum in government schools , so right from beginning children learn how to be Happy , I have found this move very inspiring as in this fast paced world where everyone puts tremendous pressure on children right from beginning if we inculcate seeds of Happiness , they will surely prosper and come out as successful person . Yes you all are reading it right now the situation is so bad that we need to LEARN how to be Happy . MADHYA PRADESH and ANDHRA PRADESH also has similar Happiness Index departments . All the inspiration has come from BRITAIN which went steps ahead establishing a ministry of loneliness .

I am not that big a personality that I will teach you to be Happy , but I can say one thing that Ups and Downs are part of life , as seen in the ECG also , a straight line means THE END . One thing I can share which I have also experienced also is when one is swimming in his ocean of creativity he does not have the TIME to be sad . Whenever I indulge myself in my creativity , my passion , which is the medium through which I am interacting with you all right now , my Writing ; I forget about all the hardships and the matters that can make me Sad .

There is a famous line said by SHAH RUKH KHAN – “When everything in your life seems to be on the brink of end and absolutely nothing is going write , close your eyes with a little embarassement you will survive it and your Creativity will be the best friend in helping you come out of it ; very fortunate are those who get to choose their Passion as their Careers with I being one of them but even if you don’t always keep your Creativity alive” .

Now we all know that we also need to be Happy to make our Country score high so come on let’s Smile guys . We all need to bath in the colours of our Creativity to wash the small patches of sadness in life we all have . Who knows we can paint a new picture of our country in the Canvas of Happiness .

JAI HIND

ARUNESH SINHA