Happiness depends upon ourselves,” said Aristotle. There is no universally accepted method or indicator to evaluate happiness—it is subjective. Hence, measuring collective happiness of a nation or province is a tough task. In 1972, Bhutan started prioritising happiness over other factors, such as wealth and economic growth, and created an indexation for happiness based on multiple measurable factors. In 2012, the Global Happiness Council, a group of independent academicians, devised their own methodology to measure happiness of countries. Such rankings are important because the primary objective of social and economic progress is to create an ease of living resulting in a sense of happiness. This year, India Today State of the State Survey has introduced a new ranking of states based on a happiness index. The best performing states in the happiness index this year are Kerala (big state) and Goa (small state). This, however, does not mean that people in other states are less happy; it is simply a reflection of the performance of these two states across a set of parameters. To calculate the score in happiness index, objective data on prosperity (per capita income, outstanding liabilities to population, CPI, unemployment rate) of a state, along with scores from its rankings in education, health governance, infrastructure, law and order, environment and cleanliness were considered.
As per PRS India’s Kerala Budget Analysis 2020-21, the state’s economy is the ninth largest in the country with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Rs 9.78 lakh crore in 2020-21. It ranks fourth in terms of per capita GSDP (Rs 2.4 lakh in 2021-22).
That the inflation rate and liabilities on the population have remained in single digits is indicative of an effective public distribution system and investment in infra development. The state government has set up the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board to mobilise resources for faster development. It has spent over Rs 60,000 crore in the past five and a half years in developing healthcare services, education, sanitation, water supply, transportation and power sectors. The Left Democratic Front government headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has also launched a semi high-speed rail corridor, the Silverline rail project, to ensure better connectivity to the state.
“Kerala is developing the state with specific targets. We have launched several missions to ensure inclusive development for all. We are working on programmes to make the state investor-friendly and are investing heavily in creating public assets. The Kerala Life Mission (a campaign to build houses for families without land or housing) offered over 500,000 houses to the poor free of cost. Our commitment to the people is to ensure transparency in governance and improve service delivery to the needy,” says CM Vijayan.
On November 3, after the Union government slashed the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 7, respectively, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant cut them further by Rs 7 each. The reduced fuel prices have helped the Goa government control inflation in three weeks. This was the state government’s second gift to its citizens in two months. From November 1, the state government has been providing 16,000 litres of free water per month to each household at a cost of Rs 8 crore. The loss-making decision, however, has resulted in zero water bills for about 80 per cent of Goa’s residents.
An otherwise sleepy state, Goa gets into governance mode in times of crises. In September, CM Sawant launched the ‘Sarkar Tumchya Dari’ (government at your doorstep) initiative, taking 152 schemes of his government to the people. He claimed that in the first week of November, thousands of beneficiaries were identified under this initiative and had begun receiving benefits.
Iron ore mining ground to a halt in the state in March 2017, resulting in an annual loss of Rs 1,000 crore to the state exchequer. The Covid-mitigating lockdown in 2020 left the tourism sector paralysed with a loss of another Rs 1,000 crore. Goa’s annual unemployment rate is 15.9 per cent. However, the state maintained its numero uno position in per capita income. In 2019-20, Goa’s per capita income was Rs 4.35 lakh, highest in the country and way above the national average of Rs 1.35 lakh.
Goans have done remarkable work in the fields of cleanliness and environment protection. They vehemently opposed the proposal to increase coal transportation in south Goa as well as the setting up of a campus for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) by destroying forest cover in north Goa in the past one year. An improved infrastructure, in terms of road network and power supply, too, has bettered the lifestyle of Goa’s residents CM Sawant attributes Goa’s progress on the happiness front to the tireless work of government employees in the pandemic. “We were able to bring the state back to normalcy because of them,” he says.
The Goans’ thirst for happiness was seen on social media too. A mobile app called ‘The Happiness Project’ has been popular among the people. On it, one can play one of four games to contribute to happiness research in five minutes. Thousands of people played the games over a million times in less than four months.
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