why-are-indians-not-happy

The World Happiness Report for 2024 was released on March 20. Finland maintained its position at the top of the index for the seventh year in a row.

 

In the annual UN-sponsored report, India ranked 126th, the same as last year, in the happiness index. Meanwhile, Afghanistan was deemed the least unhappy country after Congo, Sierra Leone, Lesotho and Lebanon.

 

Among the top 10 countries listed are Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Australia. However, India finds itself positioned at 126th on the list, trailing behind nations like Libya, Iraq, Palestine, Niger, Ukraine and Pakistan. These rankings were revealed on Wednesday to coincide with the UN's International Day of Happiness.

 

With India officially trailing behind war-stuck Palestine and Ukraine, it raises a simple question - Why are Indians unhappy?

 

The happiness ranking relies on individuals' self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction and factors such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.

 

With a happiness score of 4.054, according to the World Happiness Report, India is one of the least joyful nations. 

 

In 2018, after India dropped to 133rd place on the index, Pranab Mukherjee, the former Indian President, said that despite India's economic progress, the country is going downward in the happiness index. 

 

“The quest [for] happiness is closely tied to the quest for sustainable development, which combines social inclusion and environmental sustainability. … A narrow-vision focus on economic development may have given us a better GDP and increase in per capita income — but moved our focus from environmental sustainability, social welfare, and the emotional and mental well-being of our people. These are the primary reasons [for] our ranking in the world happiness index year after year,” Mukherjee explained.

 

Jayshree Sengupta, an economist and author, said, "Clearly, the correlation between happiness and wealth is weak."

 

Sengupta wrote that the country’s chronic unhappiness results from many factors: rapid urbanisation and congestion in cities, concerns about food security and water safety, rising costs of health care, women’s safety, and environmental pollution, which itself is linked to poor mental wellbeing.

 

She added that growing inequality and "seeing the rich and famous have fancy weddings and lavish parties at home and abroad do make ordinary people unhappy."

 

"Older age is associated with higher life satisfaction in India, refuting some claims that the positive association between age and life satisfaction only exists in high-income nations," the report states. 

 

"However, older women in India report lower life satisfaction than older men. Older adults with secondary or higher education and those with higher social castes report higher life satisfaction than counterparts without formal education and those from scheduled castes and tribes. Satisfaction with living arrangements, perceived discrimination, and self-rated health emerged as the top three predictors of life satisfaction."

 

"A systematic review of 24 studies among older adults (60+ years) in Asian countries, including India, has identified age, gender, social relationships, social engagement, living arrangements, education, income, caste, religion, health behaviours, health conditions, and health care to affect life satisfaction in later life," the report states. 

 

"Few studies have examined life satisfaction among older adults in India, yet those that have found that factors such as poor childhood, financial status, lack of social support in late life, physical frailty, and feelings of loneliness are associated with lower levels of life satisfaction," says the report.

 

The study further establishes a correlation between caste and life satisfaction, suggesting that caste can influence access to various flexible resources such as knowledge, power, prestige, and mainstream social connections.

 

It's safe to say that India's unhappiness is closely linked to the escalating mental health crisis, steep income divide, social security, unemployment, women's safety, healthcare, and environmental concerns. Though India is ranked fifth in the world's GDP rankings and is set to become the third-largest economy by 2027, with its GDP touching $5 trillion, a lot needs to be done to make people safe, secure, and happy again.