17. My Point of View on GNH (Gross National Happiness) Index

Recently there was a news about Bhutan which happens to be currently the only country that attaches more importance to Gross National Happiness (GNH) over GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

I am quoting from the reference below:

According to the Bhutanese government, the four pillars of GNH are:

1.      Sustainable and equitable socio-economic development.

2.      Environmental conservation.

3.      preservation and promotion of culture; and

4.      good governance.

The nine domains of GNH are psychological well-being, health, time use, education, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards.

…

The Bhutan GNH Index is considered by progressive scholars to measure societal progress similarly to other models such as the OECD Better Life Index of 2011, and SPI Social Progress Index of 2013. One feature distinguishing Bhutan's GNH Index from the other models is that the other models are designed for secular governments and do not include religious behaviour measurement components.

But I think, we can interlace at least some of the ideas that we have come across that are widely prevalent and also mentioned in my other blogs on economy.

What may be the factors that will promote the adoption of GNH?

•       Promote a national culture and ideology that will give importance to overall happiness and well-being than over just financial success. This includes mutual respect, cooperation and co-development and other unselfish attitudes such as supporting (as necessary), sharing, caring, exhibiting benevolence and paying attention to greater goodness of the cause while in pursuit of excellence.

•      Publish national policy on GNH considering all aspects impacting the overall well being of the society. From the reference given below, we can understand that there may be multiple approaches that had been tried earlier. We must ensure the focus on continuous improvement aspects of such policies and implementations.

•       Develop regulations, processes, standards and frameworks as applicable to implement GNH and to monitor, control and measure its progress.

•     Adoption of an apt lower minimum wage,promoting wealth-distribution, affixing lower to higher income ratio, wage cap and wealth cap in the constitution will install some financial discipline that will go a long way to promote overall well being of one and all. Also implement the Basic Minimum Income concept as appropriate because of the inevitability of money in the new age economy.

•       Develop processes and policies that will help avoid the concentration of money and power which are the root causes of corruption. Widespread corruption is inherently evil and will spread vicious unhappiness with domino effect if unchecked.

•    State of honesty and integrity of the Government can be mostly accepted if the money is converted into digital format that are protected by adequate biometrics and other relevant security measures. Needless to say, the importance of maintaining the audit trail of all income and outgoing funds to the required degree.

•       Increase the factor of safety for handling economic resources of the country including the reserve currencies by

o   Spreading the control points around controlling, stocking, releasing and using aspects

o   Building genuine 4 or more eyes principle

o   Instil interlacing bureaucratic and judicial interjections at appropriate levels and process stages

o   Promoting publishing of financial reports at local and regional levels before publishing the national level financial reports that will not be deviant from each other.

o   Publish conformance report on the source and application of funds for the strategic national projects and for those projects that take a huge financial toll on the national economy. This to ensure that the strategy, execution and results are all properly aligned even under long term engagement timelines.

•      Leverage the role of NGOs as appropriately since the concept of GNH is a bit abstract and the government may need all hands on deck including for the spread of efforts and to collect reliable data (while the definition of happiness itself is a bit abstract, as a sane responsible individual we are expected to know the things that should be avoided and the ones that should be promoted).

•       Remember – Charity begins at home and hence without solving large scale local issues such as issues relating to lack of shelter, food, clothing , jobs etc any large scale donations crossing the border should not be done in a mindless manner.

Reference:

• Gross National Happiness - Wikipedia