[Answered] Do you think, India’s low ranking given by World Happiness Report, is based on a key misjudgment? Give reasons for your arguments.

World Happiness Report presents the people’s assessment of their lives through qualitative indicators. It is published by Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and uses a framework to evaluate people’s own opinion about their lives, progress and well being, through quantitative indicators.

India ranked very low in these reports (126^th out of 137 countries in 2023 report) and these reports have been widely criticised by experts for misjudgement. The reasons for misjudgement are:

• Only a tiny fraction of citizens of a country participates in the report survey. Thus, the feedback of these people (about a thousand) determines the outcomes for all the citizens (about 130 crore), which may not be a realistic perception.
• Happiness is a subjective feeling, which can not be caught into any fixed parameter. In a collectivist society, the parameters of happiness will be significantly different from the parameters in an individualistic society.
• Happiness Index gains wide publicity, hence there may be politically motivated reason for dominant countries to tarnish the image of India through the index, when India defies its diktat, especially in the Ukraine-Russia war.
• There has been obvious discrepancy in the rankings. The neighbouring countries of India, facing political, social and economic crisis (Pakistan, Sri Lanka Afghanistan and Myanmar), are ranked better than India, which has been enjoying a stable political and economic regime. The report indicates that citizens of such countries are happier than India, which seems distant from reality.
• The methodology fails to incorporate diversity, spirituality, festivities, divorce rates and closeness of parents with their children. These factors would incorporate the key factors of happiness in a collectivistic society.

Therefore, the attempt to arrest a wide emotion such as happiness within the folds of quantitative ranking has been mediocre at best. This report needs a revamp, so that all the aspects of happiness have their due weightage, instead of vilifying certain countries for not becoming as individualistic as western countries.