Story of an unhappy nation: New India

The sole reason and motivation for every human action is happiness. No matter what we do or what we think, the end is to make ourselves happy. Every other emotion that humans feel are directed or implied towards the achievement of happiness ultimately. In the last 8 years, India has seen an inglorious fall in the world happiness report ranking, from ranking 111 out of 156 countries in 2013 to 136 out of 146 nations in 2022.

The world happiness report is based on the measurement of subjective well-being that continues to rely on three main well-being indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions. The happiness rankings are based on life evaluations as the more stable measure of the quality of people's lives.

In the 2022 edition of the report, India is in a worrisome position at 136th spot. What is unbelievable for many in India is that even Pakistan has consistently managed to fare better than us in this poll, with our neighbour ranking 121 in this year’s report and 105 in 2021.

In other concerning reports, adding to the existing crisis, India ranks 101 out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (2021) and 142 out of 180 countries in World Press Freedom Index (2021).

What is the reason for these worrying conditions prevailing in India?

The year 2020 is a testimony to how an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc around the world. One of the immediate responses to the onset of this crisis was the imposition of a lockdown in many countries, including India. In fact, the Oxford University stringency index christened India’s unplanned and unthoughtful lockdown as one of the world’s strictest. This lockdown dealt a severe blow to the Indian economy. The migrant crisis was one of the most severe consequences of this lockdown, which led to the loss of livelihoods and a sharp decline in incomes. Consistent with the timing and relative stringency of the lockdown, the steepest fall in incomes was witnessed in April 2020—19% and 41% in rural and urban India respectively. This decline corresponds to economic degrowth of 23.9% and an unemployment rate of around 24% in 2020. Recovery in both employment and incomes since has been patchy and disappointing.

The recovery from the COVID crisis hasn’t been as encouraging as imagined to be. The grief over lost lives and the struggle of fading incomes hadn’t come to pass when the government as usual was caught unawares by choking-high prices and threats to our national borders. Then came the government’s utter insensitivity when the farmers launched their formidable protest against the three Black Laws brought by the Modi government. The events that followed shook the nation. A different wave of unemployment and inflation hit the youth, middle classes and the unorganised sector, who not only lost their kin but also their incomes. The poor and underprivileged were brought to their knees. Incompetent governance and disastrous policy-making emerged as the reason behind this newly unhappy nation.

India’s demography is predominantly young. About 67 per cent of India is in the age-group of 15–64 years. Jobs with social security, a written job contract and other employment benefits generally employ those with higher educational qualifications, which leaves a huge percentage of the young population without a well-paid, secure job. The situation is further aggravated by the levels of corruption in the country—on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2022, India fell to the 85th rank.

Another major reason for India’s unhappiness is the lack of social support and stigmas around mental health in India. The national scores on social support are the national average of the binary responses (either 0 or 1) to the question of probability of one finding help and support from their relatives and friends when in need. India attained a score of 0.617 in 2020. The roots of these low scores can be found in the very structures of Indian society and the inability of the Indian government in creating awareness and bringing a positive change.

Since India is ruled by a Government with no concern or care for its high unemployment rates, sinking economy, and deteriorating lifestyles, India being placed 136th in this index is no surprise. India’s ranking cannot be improved by the people of India alone. The government of India needs to take this grave situation seriously and bring channels of change accordingly. To build India into a happy nation, the government needs to weed out its incompetencies and start working towards the real betterment of people. If it's not for happiness, nothing in this world holds any value.