Last year, a Global Hunger Index report was released. It ranked India at 107 out of 122 countries, behind North Korea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria and Congo. It didn’t make any sense, had a flawed methodology but yet received massive global media attention. While I did a column debunking the report at that time, it remained a mystery to me why such reports get so much traction and world-wide coverage? Why do we take these seriously flawed reports so seriously?
The recent release of the World Happiness Report, another nonsensical data-crunching exercise, answered these questions for me. It ranked India at 126 out of 136 countries, making it one of the least happy countries in the world. According to this report, India far more unhappy than many strife-ridden or nearly bankrupt countries such as Ukraine, Iraq, Burkina Faso, Palestine, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan Well, at least our neighbors are happy.
It may not make sense. Yet, the world treated this report as a holy document, with all top media coverage around the world.
The World Happiness Report is released by a UN-backed NGO called Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Ah, such a noble, wonderful, uncriticizable name, isn’t it? The SDSN is a relatively small organization, with an annual revenue of around $11mn (mainly grants). It is a pdf document, with three necessary items that seem a must for such reports. These are 1) colorful, well-designed bright pages with beautiful icons, 2) lots of charts and tables with numbers and mention of the world ‘regression coefficient,’ so it all seems thorough and academic, 3) pictures, (and this is really important) of people of different ethnicities, races, and color.
Pictures in such reports have the following guidelines. a) They should be of preferably be of families, or women with kids b) the people in the pictures should look poor, shy but still smiling and happy, c) people from developing countries should be standing in a village with crops or farm animals and d) pictures should a wonderful, virtue-signalling quote by someone wanting a better world.
The World Happiness Report does all the above. It also claims to measure and rank the happiness levels of every country. Happiness – what a big, emotive word, just like hunger. Always, make sure the Index you are creating has a big, emotive word in it.
So, how do they measure happiness? How about simply asking people around the world– ‘Are you happy?’ No, of course not. That would be way too easy. Also, what do these poor, shy, colored, third-world people know about happiness? We will tell them what it means to be happy and will decide the criteria for it.
And what are the criteria? There is a big dependence on a Gallup World Poll. That poll asks people on where they currently are in life (on a scale of 1 to 10) versus where they best possibly could be (which would be a full 10 score). If the respondent rates low, poof, the country is not happy. Hence, if I feel I can go higher in life, or have aspiration, I am not where I can be – I am unhappy! The survey asks these questions to a 500-2,000 people per country. So, 2,000 people’s view on where they are in life versus where they could be decides the global happiness rank of a nation of 1,400,000,000 plus people!
The great minds creating the report also add some more wonderful factors they see as determining happiness – per capita income (so in favor of rich countries, assumption being the richer the happier, ad infinitum), how much did you give to charity (again rich countries give more), how much corruption exists (separate issue, but fine), what are the social welfare benefits (rich countries have more, so they will win again) and how independent do you feel to make decisions (individualistic western societies will score well, and our collectivist societies will not). There are other criteria too, maybe well-intended. However, anyone with had a bit of common sense could see the results and say this doesn’t make any sense.
For instance, let’s look at the grand winner – the happiest country in the world – six years in a row, which is Finland. It’s a country near the north pole, parts of which has temperatures below -40 degrees C in the winter. Finland also has areas where the sun does not rise for nearly two months during parts of the year. Imagine a permanent dark night for fifty days and fifty nights. Further, Finnish people, at least as per stereotype, are silent and do not talk much. You call this this happiest place on earth? Ever been to an IPL match in India sir? Or seen us on our festivals? Or when we have a wedding in the family? Or the birth of a child.
Meanwhile, did the great creators of this great report ever compared depression rates around the world? Or anti-depressant prescription?? Did you bother to see divorce rates? Or how often do old people meet their kids in the West versus India? Or the closeness of grandparents to grandchildren? Or the peace people feel due to their relationship with God? Is all this totally irrelevant and only money and money-enabled criteria that matter?
Sure, it is their report. They can churn whatever dataset they want; however they like it. However, it is a problem when they label their gibberish data-crunching as ‘World Happiness Report’ and rank certain countries near the bottom based on those criteria. Just because there is good intent, great pdf files and lofty statements, doesn’t mean what is published makes sense. This is not a case of Indian patriotism, or our egos being hurt due to the low rank. This is a case of a bad data-crunching exercise based on flawed criteria on a subject as complex as happiness. I strongly suggest the creators of the report take a trip to India, see the smiles and love all around and then see if their report needs some rework. We may have less. We may have a long way to go. However, having seen a fair bit of the world I can tell you this without making a hundred regression tables and fancy report – Indians are one of the happiest people on earth!
April 4, 2023 ()