GROSS NATIONAL

HAPPINESS
A MEASURE OF GROWTH

Submitted by:
• Aadil Ahmed
• Aanchal Sethi
• Abhijeet Chowdhury
• Abhishek Mehta
• Abhishek Sharma
MEANING
WHY GNH
 GNH stands for the holistic needs
 GNH seeks to promote a conscious, inner search
for happiness and requisite skills
 It supports the notion that happiness pursued and
realized within the context of the greater good of
society offers the best possibility for the sustained
happiness of the individual
 Public policies based on GNH will be far less
arbitrary than those based on standard economic
tools.
GNH
Domains Time use

Living
Ecology standards

Good
Education GNH governance
Domains

Health
Psychological
wellbeing

Culture Community
vitality
SCREENING GNH
Simple GNH Screening Tool
Assesses impacts of policies and projects
on GNH
Selects GNH enhancing policies
Applied in two phases:
 Policy Level
 Project Level
SCREENING GNH CONTD..

Each question has 4 pointer scale.

Scale ranked from 1 to 4.
 1 – Negative Score
 2 – Uncertain
 3 – Neutral Score
 4 – Positive Score
SCREENING GNH CONTD..
Stress

Will increase Do not know the Will not have Will decrease
levels of stress effects on levels any appreciable levels of stress
in the of stress in the effects on levels in the
population population of stress in the population
population

1 2 3 4

Negative Uncertain Neutral Positive

SCREENING GNH CONTD..

Calculation:
 Score x No. of Questions

Scoring
 Done by heterogeneous group of qualified
experts and professionals.
 Have sound knowledge of subject matter.
FOUR PILLARS OF BHUTAN GNH

‡ Sustainable
and equitable ‡ Conservation ‡ Preservation
‡ Good
socio- of the and promotion
governance
economic environment of culture
development
KEY DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS
OF GNH IN BHUTAN

Environ-
Infant
Per and School mental
Life Health enroll- Literacy
capita expectancy maternal
coverage rates
income mortality -ment
rates conserva
-tism
 WHY GDP AS A MEASURE OF
HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING
PARTLY FAILS?
Failure to make qualitative distinctions

Failure to value Natural, Human, and Social

capital.

Failure to value free time

Failure to value unpaid work.

Failure to account for equity.

KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO
TYPES OF DEVELOPMENT MEASURE

Gross National Happiness Gross Domestic Product

Aspect (GNH) (GDP)

Applicable within a region,

Applicability Universally applicable
country, culture, etc.

Extent to which
quantifiable Difficult to quantify Quantifiable

Measure of relative well being Inadequate

between two countries Adequate

Subjective (but it could be Objective

Objectivity
argued that it is an objective
decision to measure subjective
perceptions of citizens)

Ability to accommodate
cultural differences Yes No
GNH IN INDIA
Inadequacy of GDP leads to using GNH as
a substitute
Why GNH?
Social scientists: happiness as priority for
government
Health and happiness go hand in hand.
Happiness has to be measured like health
statistics.
CHALLENGES
No reliable data on conditions of rural
primary schools, primary health
centers, land use, land ownership etc.
Selecting proponents of happiness index
Happiness is highly subjective
Differences between people and
economists
Happiness tends to fluctuate too.
FINAL SAYING.
THANK YOU