{"id":236092,"date":"2023-04-04T19:18:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T13:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=236092"},"modified":"2023-04-05T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T08:02:10","slug":"concerns-associated-with-world-happiness-report-their-blindness-to-our-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/concerns-associated-with-world-happiness-report-their-blindness-to-our-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns associated with World Happiness Report: Their Blindness To Our Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S<\/strong>ource<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cTheir Blindness To Our Happiness<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>published in The Times of India <\/strong>on\u00a04th April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS \u2013 2: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About concerns associated with World Happiness Report.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The World Happiness Report was released recently. It has ranked India 126 out of 137 countries.<\/p>\n

What are the key highlights of the World Happiness Report?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Read here: World Happiness Report: Finland happiest country in the world, India ranked 126th: U.N. report<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What are the concerns associated with World Happiness Report and India’s ranking in it?<\/h2>\n

Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) capacity<\/strong>: SDSN is a relatively small organisation, with an annual revenue of around $11 million, mainly in grants.<\/p>\n

Defining happiness is not feasible<\/strong>: Happiness is a big, emotive word, just like hunger.<\/p>\n

Note: Global Hunger Index<\/a><\/strong> ranked India at 107 out of 121 countries, behind North Korea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria and Congo.<\/em><\/p>\n

The criteria are depended more on Gallup World Poll. The poll asks people about where they currently are in life (on a scale of 1 to 10) versus where they could best possibly be (which would be a full 10 score). If the respondent gives a low rating, then the country is considered not happy.<\/p>\n

The main issue with this poll is that if the persons have higher aspirations, then they are considered as unhappy.<\/p>\n

Limited polling<\/strong>: The poll asks the above questions to 500-2,000 people per country. So, 2,000 people\u2019s view is used to decide the global happiness rank of a nation having 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n

Tilted to rich countries<\/strong>: The report also has factors which favour rich countries. Such as a)<\/strong> per capita income<\/strong> – favouring rich countries and assuming being richer the happier, b)<\/strong> charity<\/strong> – rich countries give more, c) Level of corruption<\/strong> – low in developed countries, d) social welfare benefits<\/strong> – Rich countries have more and e)<\/strong> How independently a person is making decisions<\/strong> – individualistic western societies will score well, and collectivist society like India will not.<\/p>\n

Issues with Finland’s ranking<\/strong>: Finland is ranked as the happiest country in the world for six years in a row. However, its ranking has raised certain questions. Such as, a)<\/strong> The country is near the North Pole and parts of which have temperatures below -40 \u00b0C in the winter and the sun does not rise for nearly two months during parts of the year. Thus, there is a permanent dark for 50 days and 50 nights, b)<\/strong> Finnish people, at least as per stereotype, are silent and do not talk much.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Finland is ranked as the happiest place on Earth.<\/p>\n

Does not measure the required aspects<\/strong>: The report does not include a)<\/strong> Celebration of festivals, b)<\/strong> Depression rates around the world, c)<\/strong> Divorce rates, d)<\/strong> Time period in which old people meet their kids, e)<\/strong> The closeness of grandparents to grandchildren, f)<\/strong> The peace people feel due to their relationship with God.<\/p>\n

Overall, the report needs some rework, especially with a focus towards developing countries like India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cTheir Blindness To Our Happiness\u201d\u00a0published in The Times of India on\u00a04th April 2023. Syllabus: GS \u2013 2: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate. Relevance: About concerns associated with World Happiness Report. News: The World Happiness Report was released recently. It has ranked India 126 out… Continue reading Concerns associated with World Happiness Report: Their Blindness To Our Happiness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496,2080],"class_list":["post-236092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","tag-world-happiness-report","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":6,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698478572},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}