The ranking of happy countries has been decided arbitrarily, not on the basis of facts.

The ‘Global Happiness Index’ for the year 2023 has been released, in which Finland has topped for the sixth time in a row. It is also worth noting that India has improved by three points to reach 136th position in this, which is surprising. There definitely seems to be some bias or insistence in issuing this list. Because Pakistan is at 103rd position in pleading for loan and complaining. It is also worth noting that there is not a single Asian country in the list of top 20 countries. There are some such ironies and inconsistencies as well, which reduce the importance of this index. Which shows the full possibilities of error in the assessment of the world’s happy countries. This ranking of happy countries raises many questions. People in China have not even got religious-economic freedom properly, but it is at 82nd place. Nepal is at 85th position, while Bangladesh is at 99th position. Economically bad Sri Lanka is at 126th place. In such a situation, India’s 136th ranking may surprise one, may also raise questions on the quality and objectivity of this assessment. To know the status of a country in the Happiness Index, its GDP, quality of life and life expectancy are seen there. The list has been prepared after studying the data of more than 150 countries in this year’s ranking. This time the report has been prepared on the basis of average life evaluation of countries from 2020 to 2022. There have been attempts to measure happiness on two other fronts, in which India’s condition is not so bad.

Still there is a big question why we are not able to top the list of happy societies. This question is giving an opportunity to the top leadership of the government to introspect, while the policy makers also have to think that where there is a mistake in the construction of society that we are not able to make a respectable place in the list of happy countries continuously. It remains to be seen how seriously the Government of India takes this report. By the way, apart from this index, two other surveys have been released, in which according to ‘The State of Happiness 2023’ report of a consulting firm HappyPlus, about 35 percent of the respondents in the country have experienced negativity and unhappiness in 2022, i.e. 65. percent of Indian people are relatively happy. This report has been prepared on the basis of the feedback of 14 thousand people from 36 states and union territories. There is also another survey, according to which, at least 84 percent people in India claim to be happy. This ‘Ipsos Global Happiness Survey’ based on life satisfaction shows that 73 percent of people worldwide are satisfied. By the way, sadness or happiness is such a state, on which consensus cannot be reached through any survey. Nevertheless, taking positive inspiration from such lists, it is good to make all kinds of efforts for the structure of a happy society.

The happiness index is based on extensive research by a team of economists and experts in various fields, which includes good governance, per capita income, health, life expectancy, trust, social cooperation, philanthropy, charity, freedom and generosity. etc. as the basis. The purpose of the report is to show a mirror to the rulers of different countries whether their policies are playing any role in making people’s lives happy or not? Since independence, our top leadership has been making impossible wishes for true idealism to appear while continuously creating lies of idealism and goodness, due to which the problems of life have intensified, the array of negativity has become stronger, happiness and happy life. The goal of these has remained incomplete, it is becoming impossible to get out of them. Man is feeling himself broken in the contaminated and suffocating environment. Economic imbalance, rising inflation, unemployment, deteriorating law and order and corruption are circulating the blood of sick thoughts in his arteries. How can a person lead a happy life in such complicated circumstances? Coming out of these deep darkness, an optimism has been reflected in the work and policies of the governments in the last decade, the present governments have also played a positive role in dealing with the Corona epidemic. Another important thing that has come out from this is that three years of epidemic has not had any significant impact on the happiness of India in totality.

Population is the biggest obstacle in promoting prosperity in India. How important is the 136th rank for a vast and uneven development country like India? There are many types of India in India, there is a rich and prosperous India, then there is also a poor India. Poor India is also developing, but the population is so high that it will take time to make the country the top among the overall happy countries. Finland, the happiest country, has a population of only 5.5 million, for which development is easy. There are more people living in it than in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata cities of India. In the second place in the list of happy countries, 58.6 lakh people live in Denmark, in the third place country Iceland, there are only 3.73 lakh people. Anyway, feeling happy depends on the person’s own thinking. That’s why the question is what should be the measure of our happiness? Most of the people consider the fulfillment of small needs as happiness. This gives them satisfaction at that moment, their mind blossoms. But this happiness does not last long, it is not permanent. With the fulfillment of the desire, their happiness also starts to weaken.

Happiness and happiness is the need of all of us, but the question is whether our need is being fulfilled, the latest assessment is proving that we are continuously lagging behind in terms of happiness and happiness. The ironic situation is that our Indian society and its people are less happy than most of its neighboring societies. In the research of happiness, happiness is measured by the physical facilities available at the national level. But the scope of happiness is not that small. The significance of development lies in the fact that the common citizen of the country should feel satisfied and hopeful. He himself becomes financially strong, at least he has to face legal and administrative formalities, only then he will be happy. Events like digitization, economic innovation have given more trouble and skeleton to the common man. His face is extinguished amidst the thick darkness of problems. There is neither enthusiasm nor consciousness in them. Lost in one’s own thoughts, passive and empty-handed, hopeless and negative and drained of energy. Yes indeed such people feel tired when they wake up in the morning despite having a full sleep, they do not have enthusiasm towards work. Energy levels are on the decline in them. Why does this happen? Have you ever felt These conditions are the result of an unbalanced and chaotic social system. Individuals and society cannot be happy in such an environment.

-Lalit Garg

(The author is a senior journalist and columnist)