On Thursday, India announced it is creating its first ‘ministry of
happiness’ to encourage citizens to take up yoga, spirituality and meditation
in a bid to combat stress.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief Minister of the Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, plans to announce the creation of a “happiness ministry” when he
expands this week. Chouhan, who was in Delhi today meeting the top BJP
leadership, had announced in March that he would create a ministry to focus on
the “happiness index” and try to keep Madhya Pradesh residents “happy”.
According to Chouhan, who holds a master’s degree in philosophy, “happiness
does not come into the lives of people merely with materialistic possessions or
development but by infusing positivity in their lives so that they don't take
extreme steps like suicide in distress”. Madhya Pradesh has in recent months
witnessed a large number of suicides, mostly by schoolchildren who were afraid
of failure in examinations. It ranks third, after Maharashtra and Telangana, in
farmer suicides. Madhya Pradesh also suffers from high malnutrition, infant and
maternal mortality, and the highest rape incidence in the country.
The new ministry will oversee up to 70 social programmes spanning yoga,
spirituality, meditation and the arts, as well as offering free religious
pilgrimages for senior citizens. It will also incorporate existing
schemes such as the state’s flagship “girl child” programme, which will see
female students and their families get financially rewarded for remaining
in education longer.
The new ministry emulates dedicated happiness bureaus in the UAE
and Venezuela. During his tenure as French president, Nicolas Sarkozy planned
to introduce a happiness index as an alternative to GDP for measuring
growth. India is the latest country to introduce government measurements for
happiness, following Bhutan and the UAE.
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