World Happiness Index

World Happiness Report:-

The first "World Happiness Report"was published in support of the April 2, 2012 United Nations High Level Meeting on Happiness and Well Being.

That meeting itself followed the July 2011 Resolution of the UN General Assembly, proposed by the Prime Minister of Bhutan, inviting member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use this to help guide their public policies.

The report is based of the six factors:

1. GDP per capita, 
2. Healthy years of Life Expectancy, 
3. Social Support (as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble), 
4. Trust (as measured by a perceived absence of corruption in government and business), 
5. Perceived Freedom to make life decisions, and 
6. Generosity (as measured by recent donations, adjusted for differences in income). 

BHUTAN's GNH (Gross National Index) INDEX:-

Gross National Happiness is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. 

The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of well being. 

The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: 

• Good governance, 
• Sustainable Socio-Economic Development, 
• Cultural Preservation, and 
• Environmental Conservation

Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values. 

The nine domains are: 

1. Psychological well being,
2. Health,
3. Education, 
4. Time use, 
5. Cultural diversity and resilience, 
6. Good governance, 
7. Community vitality, 
8. Ecological diversity and resilience, and
9. Living standards. 

The domains represents each of the components of well being of the Bhutanese people, and the term ‘well being’ here refers to fulfilling conditions of a ‘good life’ as per the values and principles laid down by the concept of Gross National Happiness.

The GNH Index: What is it?

The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from 33 indicators categorized under nine domains. 

The GNH Index is constructed based upon a robust multidimensional methodology known as the Alkire-Foster method. 

The Alkire Foster (AF) method is a way of measuring multidimensional poverty developed by OPHI’s (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative) Sabina Alkire and James Foster. 

Building on the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measures, it involves counting the different types of deprivation that individuals experience at the same time, such as a lack of education or employment, or poor health or living standards. 

These deprivation profiles are analysed to identify who is poor, and then used to construct a multidimensional index of poverty (MPI).