The UN has rated Nepal the happiest country in South Asia and labelled India the saddest – but experts say the global survey failed to take into account disruption caused by unrest and the pandemic in the Himalayan nation of 30 million merry people.
The 2022 World Happiness Report ranked Nepal 84th in an index of 146 nations, putting it head and shoulders above its South Asian neighbours.
This is despite Covid-19 prompting thousands of Nepalese to scramble for permits to seek work abroad after countries in the Middle East relaxed Covid restrictions last autumn.
"I wonder how happiness is evaluated. Often we find those in the countryside more content than people in mansions," Sarthak Sengupta, vice president of Indian Anthropological Society, told RFI.
Baffled
The UN South Asia happiness crown has left a section of Nepal’s media as well as experts baffled.
"The Nepalese people may not be very aware of what is happening outside their lives, or they may not be having a comparative study from the world," Delhi-based political scientist Rajendra Dayal told RFI.
"So, I wonder what parameters have been used."
Anthropologist Dambar Chemjong, who teaches at Nepal’s Tribhuvan University, said Nepalese stoicism may have played a part in the survey.
"Nepalis don’t generally show their pain to strangers and often tend to portray that everything is hunky dory," the Kathmandu Post quoted Chemjong as saying.
"A survey should give the real picture to have its reliability enhanced."
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network says many parameters were used in the survey’s 10th edition, with an eye on the pandemic and how nations dealt with the virus that has killed 6.1 million people worldwide.
Forgotten utopia
The survey skipped Bhutan, which embraced "Gross National Happiness" in 1972 as a better tool than gross domestic product to measure the wellbeing of its 770,000 people.
But it paid tribute to Bhutan, the only country in the world without a single traffic light.
"During the pandemic, Bhutan once again provided an inspiring example for the world about how to combine health and happiness."
"They made explicit use of the principles of Gross National Happiness in mobilising the whole population in collaborative efforts to avoid even a single Covid-19 death in 2020, despite having strong international travel links."
Analysts say the world’s only standing Buddhist kingdom could have defeated Nordic nations in the race for the crown of mirth.
The UN survey ranked Finland the happiest place on earth for the fifth straight year and Denmark held its second spot.
India has been ranked 136 among 146 countries in the World Happiness Report 2022. Even Ukraine, which is now a literal warzone, ranks above India at 98. Inflation, misgovernance & unemployment under the BJP govt has made India one of the unhappiest countries in the world!
— Dr. Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) March 19, 2022
India saddest
The UN index, helped by Gallup World Poll, ranked India 136, making it the world’s 11th least happy nation and South Asia’s saddest as worries over the pandemic’s impact stole peace of mind in the world’s second most populous country.
The ranking also marked a downwards slide for India, which began in 2012 when it was 111th in the world ranking.
"India is unhappy because it has a large young section of people fully exposed to the world which has very high aspirations," said Dayal.
"When they can’t achieve that they become nationalistic, willing to sacrifice their lives for the nation. That’s their subterfuge."
Opposition politicians took pot shots at the Hindu nationalist government in Delhi as social media was flooded with jokes and jibes.
Dystopian land
Afghanistan was ranked the world’s most melancholic state. On Tuesday the Taliban regime shut secondary schools an hour after allowing girls into classrooms, leading to chaos and heartbreak.
A UN report in January painted a dismal picture of desperate conditions for Afghanistan’s 39 million people.
Internet searches do not fully disclose the reports of abductions, gang rapes and killings that come with Afghan refugees from the unhappy nation.
