India Slips in Global list of Happiest Nations

India’s economic growth has been one of the highest among major economies in the world. A combination of factors such as acceleration of structural reforms, rule based policy framework, low inflation and deregulation measures to improve foreign investments have contributed in the growth. However, the high growth has failed to translate into happier people.  A research done by the UN as they call it “Happiness Index”, shows that people are less happy than they were in the previous years. Maintaining downward trend, India has been ranked 140th in global list of the happiest countries, according to the 7th World Happiness Report published by the UN, which measures happiness performance of 156 countries based on six factors such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. India has lost 7 places from last year’s 133 rank.

The UN research has found that there is positive correlation between happiness and the six factors used for measuring happiness. Unfortunately, India does not score well on these factors. Various studies and reports have highlighted deficiencies in areas such as income, health, education and unemployment rate. High unemployment rate causes distress among working age population with spillover effect. The unemployment rate does not only create problem at individual household level but also has an impact on social scale. The unemployed youths are vulnerable to becoming anti-social elements and are easily misguided to get involved in violent activities as well. As a result, it causes distress within society. Over 70% people live in rural areas and 90% of them are involve in agriculture. Although agriculture and allied sector accounts for 17% of India’s GVA (PIB) and the sector growth was 3.8% in 2018-2019 (MOSPI), India has been facing agrarian distress. In the education sector, a combination of factors which may cause distress among youths and parents are privatization of education, lack of quality institutions, lack of quality teachers, contract teachers who are paid lower than permanent teachers and existing institutions fail to produce skilled working class. Many researchers have found that there is negative correlation between internet use and happiness. India’s digital revolution has significantly increased the internet use in mobile and has reduced the social interaction among people. Mobile internet use has increased so much that India has surpassed European countries in using mobile data.

Performance of India’s Neighbors

Among South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, Pakistan has been placed at 67th position while Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh positions are at 154^th, 95^th, 100^th, 130^th, and 125^th respectively.

Myanmar, the country that experienced ethnic violence between the majority Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslims, has been placed at 131^st position. Only war ravaged Afghanistan has performed worse than India. China has also lost 7 places last year to 93.

Global Performance

Finland topped the ranking of the world’s happiest countries for the second year in a row whereas war torn South Sudan came last. The top 10 was dominated by the Nordics, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland taking the other leading spots followed by Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria. The United States dropped one place to 19^th.