Since the past 12 years, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) that had been launched by the UN in 2012 has been declaring the “World’s Happiest Country” based on their annual World Happiness Report that’s based on questions from their Gallup poll which are then correlated and judged on the basis of various factors that include “GDP per capita, social support, generosity, perception of corruption and the importance of equality and freedom”.
Finland has emerged as the happiest country for the 6th time this year, and other Nordic countries have also taken top slots. Like in their previous surveys, India is at the very bottom of their table. This year it was placed at the 125th place out of 137 countries taken into account, well below Pakistan, Bangladesh, most countries in Africa and Latin America, and even much, much lower than war-torn Russia and Ukraine.
Actually, the report’s conclusions are deeply flawed, as the authors presumptions that a country’s GDP and strong institutions equal to happiness show their desperate attempt to link economic well- being and a well-run country with the mental state of happiness. This should be considered ridiculous and baseless. Even if it was presumed that the concepts of equality and freedom existed in abundance in the Nordic countries, it still doesn’t automatically follow that people over there are happy
Though even if the yardstick of corruption was used as a basis, then too India is placed at 85th place out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), way higher than major Latin American and other South Asian countries that were judged happier according to the SDSN survey. Similarly, India’s income levels are also far superior to other countries deemed happier in this list. And we are not even counting the fact that corruption in India is falling greatly, while its rising in the Nordic countries in relative terms to previous years.
And as far as equality is concerned – be it religious, gender, social – international ranking agencies quoting numbers on India poorly are completely inaccurate and absolutely false as they are based on information gathered up by crooked “intellectuals” in India with vested interests. This is backed by Dr Salvatore Babones, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Sydney who spoke at the India Today conclave in Mumbai, 2022, and emphasized that most of these international agencies that ranked democracy, equality, press freedom, hunger and malnutrition poorly in India did not have their own people on ground, instead “These rankings are based on surveys, all have the same methodology.
They survey intellectuals, journalists and academics based in the country……….it is these surveys that are biased……..because….forgive me India’s intellectual class is anti-India as a class. I am criticizing fellow academics, who are being mendacious in their evaluation of India, because I went through every bit of evidence. At every point, there is cherry picking, misrepresentation, and failure to educate editorial oversight”. Dr Salvatore has also said “Indian narratives in the US and the Western world is almost entirely driven by Indian opinion writers with very little data being brought to the table” and harbouring hatred towards the current Indian government and concludes that be it democratic values or press freedom, India is a signing exemplar for the world, particularly the developing world.
Before we proceed in this article, we would like to emphasize that we are not against any country at all. It is the intent of this writer to see a world that is a happier place to stay.in. This article doesn’t deny that the richest and most advanced countries in the world are located in the western hemisphere – in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
In these countries, there are innumerable material comforts and all kinds of amenities that money can buy. They are also cleaner and environmentally friendly. But do these factors naturally qualify for what constitutes happiness? Are people in the West happier than those in India because they are more advanced and supposedly tick the correct boxes of development and social equality? This is what this article humbly tries to explore by placing facts before our readers.
The first part counters with facts to show that in our view, claims being made of India being among the unhappiest or Nordic countries being among the happiest are inaccurate. The second part shows why India is actually among the happiest, if not the happiest country in the world.
Other reputed surveys tell a more positive story about India’s happiness
While the Gallup survey puts India in a very poor light, other reputed surveys done on the happiest countries of the world tell a completely different tale. And unlike the vague questionnaire of the Gallup poll and their own judges’ presumptions of what accounts for happiness, these other surveys do not hold such brief. As such, they are more direct questions asking people whether they were happy, rather than implying because of so and so factor, they should be happy.
For example, ,the reputed IPSOS poll that conducts yearly surveys, asks the following direct question,, “Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not happy at all?” And in their most recent poll that surveyed 34 countries released early this year , China is at the very top place with 91% on average being happy and India at 4th place with 84% on average being happy. Interestingly, Nordic Sweden is placed at no.18, and Japan at no.30!.
The reasons Indians gave for their happiness included “my children (86%), relationship with relatives (85%), exercise and physical activity (85%), relationship with partner or spouse (84%), access to, in touch with nature (84%), level of education, religious faith/ spiritual life (84%), feeling appreciated (84%), access to news/ information (82%), co-workers (82%), feeling loved (82%), feeling in control of my life (81%), mental health and well-being (81%), material possessions (81%), social status (80%). country’s economic situation(78%), country’s social and political situation (72%)”. Now anyone with an open mind would appreciate that these are direct and sensible questions asked to respondents whether they were happy and the reasons behind it.
Another reputed agency, Independent Institute for Administration and Civil society studies (IIACSS) not just conducts a Happiness Index in which people are asked direct questions if they were happy or unhappy, but also questions on whether the year concerned – in this case, the year 2022 – would be better, worse or the same as the previous one – in this case 2021 – and if they were optimistic or pessimistic of things improving or not in the next year – in this case 2023. And on all of these queries,, India scores higher than Western nations, with even Switzerland that had been ranked at no.8 in SDSN, lagging behind India.
When it came to happiness, 61% Indians were happy vs 58% in Switzerland, 56% in USA, 52% in UK and just 48% in Germany. But it is the next question of whether people were optimistic or pessimistic about the coming year is where the answers from western nations were really frightening, as just 40% in USA, 37% in UK, 36% in Switzerland and just 32% in Germany were optimists whereas in the case of India, the figure was 54%. We have to also remember this survey was taking place during the period of Covid, but yet Indians remained optimistic about their future. A survey by the same company – IIACSS – in 2019 in fact placed India higher than Finland also, clearly showing that not all surveys show Finland or Nordic countries as the consistently happiest or near happiest countries in the world.
And finally an Indian agency, HappyPlus Consulting had also conducted a “State of Happiness” poll and reported that Indians are among the 25 happiest countries in the world. Like the SDSN poll, it asked round-about questions to people on social support, freedom to make life choices ,and perceptions of corruption, as well as state-level per capita net State Domestic Product, CPI, literacy rate, healthy-life expectancy at birth, MPI, and Health Index were asked to people. While it acknowledged that there were growing problems and challenges.
It still found an overall score at 6.84, which made India among the 25 happiest countries in the world. Despite the current times, it has been observed that as compared to older individuals, the younger generation expresses and feels larger levels of enjoyment, laughter and optimism. Thus it can be seen that even when this agency also used various factors to determine happiness, its results were vastly different from the SDSN poll, when its sample size was 7 times higher than that of SDSN
So even when we take into account other surveys, they are more scientific in nature and their conclusions show India as a far happier place to be in than many of the European nations
c) Nordic countries – happiest or most troubled
Anyone fond of reading books, especially crime fiction would associate the Nordic countries with film noir, of dark story lines that display disturbing mixture of sex and violence and lonely personalities with big psychological problems suffering from drinking and abusive disorders. Nordic countries excel in this crime genre with best-selling authors like Jo Nesbo, Anne Holt, Steig Larsson, etc.. What distinguishes Nordic noir with noir from other countries is the bleak Nordic landscape and weather.
This is based on the Nordic long, dark winters and short summers. For most time of the winter years, the sun can’t be seen. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that saps ones energy and makes one feel moody. It is most common in Nordic countries in the long winters and mostly resolves in the short spring and summer seasons. Thus the harsh winters can have a big influence on one’s health and this years “Happiest Country”, Finland has a particularly serious issue with it, with approximately 12% of Finns affected by it. Due to its affecting a person’s mood, it is also one of the causes for suicides in winter.
Compare with India, which receives anywhere between 2,200 – 3,200 hours of sunshine every year, with even our coldest Himalayan places such as Ladakh being blessed with clear days and 300 days of sunshine in winters even when temperatures could plummet to -40 degree celsius (inset picture).Our culture has always worshipped the sun, and stressed its connections with light and knowledge and dispelling darkness. The country is truly blessed with abundant sunshine and fertility which enlivens the atmosphere.
But even leaving the long Nordic weather aside, all Nordic countries have serious problems with mental health and depression. The Global Health Data Exchange, which conducts the world’s most comprehensive surveys, censuses and vital statistics over health related issues shows that the Nordic countries have high rates of depression, with Finland being the 9th most depressed country surveyed, with Sweden, Denmark and Norway not far behind, having far higher rates of depression than India which is placed at no.81 on the list of most depressed countries – the higher the number, the more depressed that nation. New Zealand and USA which came out as 10th and 15th most happiest countries as per the SDSN survey, were the 2nd and 13th most depressed countries in the world.
It should be considered common sense and logical that a person who is depressed cannot be happy. If a person has the best job in the world, the most beautiful house with amenities, lives in a corrupt free country, has good physical health and has all that money can buy, and yet suffers from high levels of depression, to call such a person as happy should be deemed weird.
Mental illness affects roughly one in every five Finnish people. This is higher than the European average and has a particular effect on the country’s younger population. Mental health is not a new issue. Suicides have always been a very serious issue and though it’s declined, Finland’s suicide rates remain much higher than the European average.
Other Nordic countries aren’t that far off. This is reflected in the fact that Iceland, which emerged 3rd on the list of the UN polled happiest countries, has the highest global consumption of anti-depressant drugs in the world – 15% of the population. Worse the numbers have been increasing massively over the past 20 years. with Finland (no.7) and Sweden (no.6) rates being pretty bad. Happiest countries in the world having very serious problems with depression! Does it make sense? Actually, depression is a very serious problem across Europe
But then Nordic countries have among the worst drugs abuse problem in Europe. Here again, Finland leads the pack as the European country with the highest proportion of under 25s dying from drugs. In 2022, almost 30% of casualties were 25 and under, and drug users in Finland die on an average of ten years younger than those in other EU countries.
Binge drinking is another very serious problem in all Nordic countries, but especially so in Denmark whose youth are the worst binge drinkers in Europe. More than 10% of men in Norway have alcohol use disorders. In our opinion, if one were to go to a bar and ask drinking / drunk people if they were happy, the answer would most probably be yes!!!!
And finally talking about gender inclusion and equality, one of the criteria for deciding the SDSN Happiest countries index, according to the Finnish branch of UN Women, one in three women in Finland experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives. This makes Finland the second most dangerous country for women within the EU, the NGO’s statistics suggest, adding that nearly half of girls and women over the age of 15 experience some form of physical or sexual violence during their lifetime.
This is the reason why the Finns themselves appear shocked year after year when it is revealed to them that they were declared the happiest people in the world. If Finns tell you they’re not happy, I understand,” said Finland native Anu Partanen, author of The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life, who has lived in the US for a decade but plans to move her family back this summer. “They are often pessimistic by nature and reserved about their emotions. They drink too much, it’s dark, the winters are cold and hard psychologically. Though later she qualifies it by saying that Finns have great quality of life and they feel productive to society, but it does seem as if she doesn’t want to disown the UN report but provides an excuse why Finns could be considered happiest.
Thus for someone to claim the Nordic countries as to be among the happiest seems more like a subjective opinion rather than an objective one based on facts that our article has presented here. . After all, disturbing statistics on mental health, drinking problems, recreational drug abuse and excessive usage of anti-depressant drugs, not to mention violence against women, doesn’t exactly add up to the rosy picture of Nordic countries that have been shown to us. On the other hand, even based by statistics that matter with direct questions of whether people were happy and the levels of depression, one finds India to be a far more happier place than skeptics and biased agencies may claim
To be continued in the Second Part
References
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/view-corruption-may-not-have-ended-but-things-are-on-the-mend/articleshow/81919066.cms https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/11145-corruption-harms-nordics-reputation
https://fcg.global/2023/02/01/corruption-on-the-rise-in-sweden/
https://iiacss.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Global-Happiness-and-Hope-Index-in-Iraq-2022.pdf
https://www.narcononeurope.dk/en/blog/young-danes-europes-heaviest-drinkers.html
https://healthland.time.com/2011/04/25/why-the-happiest-states-have-the-highest-suicide-rates/https://movendi.ngo/news/2022/03/17/alcohol-harm-causes-massive-economic-costs-in-norway/ https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/the-most-depressed-countries-in-the-world?slide=12 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/americans-are-unhappiest-they-ve-been-50-years-poll-finds-n1231153https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/depression-rates-by-country
It is unfair to label India as the unhappiest country because India is a diverse country, and it is home to a wide range of cultural, social, and economic conditions. While it is true that India faces several challenges such as poverty, income inequality, and access to basic amenities in certain regions, it is important that we aren’t fogetting the positive aspects as well. India has a rich cultural heritage, a vibrant democracy, a thriving film industry, and a strong tradition of spirituality. Many Indians find happiness and fulfillment in their relationships, families, and communities despite the challenges they may face.
Moreover, people’s happiness is influenced by a combination of factors, including social support, personal relationships, mental and physical well-being, etc.
The World Happiness Report evaluates and ranks countries based factors such as GDP per capita and life expectancy, etc.
Therefore it is unfair to label India as the unhappiest country as there are also personal issues occurring in people’s lives and reports shouldn’t be the one to judge whether India is happy or not.
Dhanyavaad