GNH Measures
The GNH Index is guided by a domain-based conceptual framework that shifts the focus solely from the economy alone, or from subjective happiness alone, to include other critical domains of people’s lives that lead to enhanced wellbeing.
The nine domains of GNH are (1) psychological wellbeing, (2) health, (3) education, (4) time use, (5) cultural diversity and resilience, (6) good governance, (7) community vitality, (8) ecological diversity and resilience, and lastly (9) living standards.
When we look one by one at how citizens in Bhutan are faring on these nine domains, we catch a glimpse of their wellbeing. Looking at individual portraits for thousands of Bhutanese provides a snapshot of how our quality of life is, and how it is changing, for better or worse. Its simplicity makes it a highly effective communication and evaluation tool.
We had our first national level GNH Index in 2010. This year we have our second.
Allow me to share with you some findings:
Overall, 91.2% of Bhutanese enjoy sufficiency in at least half of the domains. Furthermore, 43.4% are moderately or deeply happy because they have sufficient achievements in two-thirds of the domains.
Among groups; men are happier than women and urban residents are happier than rural ones. All domains contributed in a balanced way to GNH overall.
Looking back at 2010 for comparisons, we find that there has been a significant increase in GNH between 2010 and 2015 from .743 to .756. Is this fast or slow? We do not yet know. It is our first time to update so we have nothing to compare it to. We are still learning what is a ‘good’ growth rate of GNH Index!
Also, if we focus on the people who are unhappy or only narrowly happy according to GNH, we find that their achievements also increased by a small amount but it is statistically significant, so they are closer to reaching GNH too.
I am very pleased that our GNH growth pattern is commendable because it has been equalizing. It favoured the less happy groups. Women’s GNH Index increased faster than men’s from 2010 to 2015, reducing gender inequality. Happiness among those lacking formal schooling increased faster, reducing inequality. GNH increased more for older persons, 2010-2015, so an equalizing trend.
So, how did GNH rise? We saw some modest gains in areas such as living standards, health and time use. But in other areas such as community vitality and psychological wellbeing indicators, we actually seem to lose ground.
To be more specific, significant increases in some indicators drove the change:
A massive 20% of Bhutanese saw increases in their access to services: electricity, clean water, hygienic waste disposal, and health care.
Bhutanese have reported that they enjoy a higher number of healthy days in a month, and stay home ill less than before.
Looking into how we spend our time, which is a good way to take the pulse of our values, we see that people spent more time on cultural activities, and 7% more Bhutanese slept enough in 2015 than in 2010 – so we do not have a rise in workaholics!
Other drivers of change were improved housing conditions, which improved for 12% of Bhutanese – plus increases in income per capita and in assets and improvements in environmental issues.
Another positive change for Bhutan regards the serious problem of wildlife like deer, boar, and elephant damaging our crops. Wildlife destruction is less of a complaint now than five years ago.
It is heartening to see the positive changes across so many of the dimensions of our lives. Yet the GNH Index is an honest 360 degree control room, not a fair weather tool. It also holds up a mirror and shows us where we are becoming weaker, which may give a little cause for soul-searching.
In Bhutan, addressing the spiritual dimension of a person’s life has been a traditional way of bringing the person’s wellbeing to the forefront. Yet in the past 5 years, people’s spirituality level has decreased slightly. People are reporting higher prevalence of negative emotions such as anger, frustration and jealousy. I am committed to implementing strategies to protect and promote the emotional, psychological and spiritual skills that underpin happiness. We have the wisdom in our Monastic Body to work with the Ministry of Education to renew our values education, so children learn spiritual skills and emotional intelligence early on. We need to establish spiritual centres and request our highly accomplished lamas and practitioners to help us develop inner peace and widom, both in traditional ways and using modern media and English. If others do likewise in our corporations, and businesses, our spirituality will be sustained!
Bhutanese also perceived changes in our culture – 17% more Bhutanese in 2015 felt that our traditional etiquette that we call Driglam Namzha had declined or was not strong enough. To address this I will revisit dzongkhag and history curriculum for schools and colleges, and require graduates and trainees to take an intensive module on the national language, philosophy, and culture (as done by lawyers at RIM), so that our future leaders of institutions and businesses revisit these topics as they reach adulthood. These and other policies can remind us of our heritage, yet in the end our values have to be renewed with authenticity and from within, in our homes and communities.
In the domain of community, volunteerism and donations isn’t growing and most significantly, we find weaker levels of social relationship with family, friends and neighbours. A sense of belongingness to the community declined by 19%. This is a plaintive cry for attention to fight social isolation both among our elders being left behind in rural areas and new urban migrants facing loneliness, and I am committed to raising this point strongly with our local leaders.
The single indicator that had the biggest decline observed in the subjective perception of government performance in employment, equality, education, health, anti-corruption, environment and culture.
It is suspected that this came about because of the divisive electoral politics had on people. The people were largely divided into two opposing electoral camps and the voters of opposing party naturally rated the performance of ruling party low.
Additionally, a sharp increase was witnessed with government’s actual delivery of services and so it can be said that government performance indicator has been rated independent of service delivery.
This result gives me the chance to open an important discussion. Bhutan has learnt a great deal from older democracies. Yet we may also have learnt some of their less positive habits. We have an opportunity to quickly drop these obstructive behaviours before they become embedded and impossible to change. I will open a discussion of what it would mean to carry out our debates and democratic exchanges, and even our electoral campaigns, with compassion, and wisdom.
From the GNH Indicators I can see clearly that Bhutanese care about how government performs, that they are troubled, and they are keeping track. I hope that in the next GNH index our government improves in their eyes.
The final troubling trend is that the improvement in GNH was strongest in our urban areas and small towns, but not in our fields and valleys and hamlets high up in the mist. We will use our agricultural policies and fast-expanding connectivity to energize GNH in rural areas, so young people build their careers and families in our beautiful villages as mature modern men and women, and don’t only yearn for the city lights.
So that is a bit, a taste of our current journey to improve GNH, and a window onto our progress and our challenges in 2015.
As you can imagine, the GNH Index will open the door to a substantive national dialogue where broad based progress and wellbeing considerations will be just as significant and tangible as financial considerations in decision-making. It will confront us with challenges and decisions we have to make to optimize wellbeing.
We hope this dialogue will also unleash the imagination, the creativity and the wisdom of Bhutanese women, men and youth in all sectors of society. So the growth in GNH will be the work of many hands and hearts and minds.