Dal 2009, per iniziativa del Re del Bhutan già dagli anni 70, è stato introdotto e studiato il concetto dell'indice di Felicità Interna Lorda (FIL) (Gross National Happiness - GNH), basato su nove domini socio-culturali/ambientali e su una serie di 33 indicatori mappati su 124 variabili, ed applicato alla popolazione del Bhutan.
Sebbene non vi sia una singola definizione ufficiale del FIL/GNH, la descrizione seguente è quella ampiamente utilizzata:
Il Dalai Lama è un convinto sostenitore del FIL, dichiarando: «Come buddhista, sono convinto che il fine della nostra vita è quello di superare la sofferenza e di raggiungere la felicità. Per felicità però non intendo solamente il piacere effimero che deriva esclusivamente dai piaceri materiali. Penso ad una felicità duratura che si raggiunge da una completa trasformazione della mente e che può essere ottenuta coltivando la compassione, la pazienza e la saggezza. Allo stesso tempo, a livello nazionale e mondiale abbiamo bisogno di un sistema economico che ci aiuti a perseguire la vera felicità. Il fine dello sviluppo economico dovrebbe essere quello di facilitare e di non ostacolare il raggiungimento della felicità».
Gross National Happiness is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing. The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values. The nine domains are: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. The domains represents each of the components of wellbeing of the Bhutanese people, and the term ‘wellbeing’ here refers to fulfilling conditions of a ‘good life’ as per the values and principles laid down by the concept of Gross National Happiness.
The GNH Index: What is it?
The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from 33 indicators categorized under nine domains. The GNH Index is constructed based upon a robust multidimensional methodology known as the Alkire-Foster method.
The GNH Index is decomposable by any demographic characteristic and so is designed to create policy incentives for the government, NGOs and businesses of Bhutan to increase GNH. The 33 indicators under the nine domains aim to emphasize different aspects of wellbeing and different ways of meeting these underlying human needs. The 33 indicators are statistically reliable, normatively important, and easily understood by large audiences. The domains are equally weighted. Within each domain, the objective indicators are given higher weights while the subjective and self-reported indicators are assigned lower weights.
The 2010 GNH Survey:
The Gross National Happiness survey was carried out in 2010 with representative samples taken at district and regional levels. The survey was administered using the GNH questionnaire which gathered data on a comprehensive picture of the wellbeing of Bhutanese. The survey gathered data from 7142 respondents; 6476 or 90.7% of the respondents had sufficient data to be included in the GNH Index.
The 2010 GNH Index: Highlights
The methodology basically provides three types of results: headcount, intensity and the overall GNH index. Headcount refers to the percentage of Bhutanese who are considered happy, and intensity is the average sufficiency enjoyed by the Bhutanese.
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| I nove domini e 33 indicatori dell'indice FIL. |
L'indice di Felicità Interna Lorda - Gross National Happiness (FIL/GNH) misura la qualità di una nazione in un modo più olistico (del PIL) e crede che uno sviluppo benefico della società umana ha luogo quando lo sviluppo materiale e spirituale accadono affiancati in modo complementare riforzandosi l'uno con l'altro.Il risultato pubblicato nel 2012 per il Bhutan è un valore di FIL di 0,743, che mostra come il 40,8% della popolazione ha raggiunto la felicità.
Il Dalai Lama è un convinto sostenitore del FIL, dichiarando: «Come buddhista, sono convinto che il fine della nostra vita è quello di superare la sofferenza e di raggiungere la felicità. Per felicità però non intendo solamente il piacere effimero che deriva esclusivamente dai piaceri materiali. Penso ad una felicità duratura che si raggiunge da una completa trasformazione della mente e che può essere ottenuta coltivando la compassione, la pazienza e la saggezza. Allo stesso tempo, a livello nazionale e mondiale abbiamo bisogno di un sistema economico che ci aiuti a perseguire la vera felicità. Il fine dello sviluppo economico dovrebbe essere quello di facilitare e di non ostacolare il raggiungimento della felicità».
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| Slogan su un muro della School of Traditional Arts in Thimphu. Source: Personal archive of Italian writer Mario Biondi. |
GNH INDEX
Bhutan GNH Index
GNH: ConceptGross National Happiness is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing. The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values. The nine domains are: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. The domains represents each of the components of wellbeing of the Bhutanese people, and the term ‘wellbeing’ here refers to fulfilling conditions of a ‘good life’ as per the values and principles laid down by the concept of Gross National Happiness.
The GNH Index: What is it?
The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from 33 indicators categorized under nine domains. The GNH Index is constructed based upon a robust multidimensional methodology known as the Alkire-Foster method.
The GNH Index is decomposable by any demographic characteristic and so is designed to create policy incentives for the government, NGOs and businesses of Bhutan to increase GNH. The 33 indicators under the nine domains aim to emphasize different aspects of wellbeing and different ways of meeting these underlying human needs. The 33 indicators are statistically reliable, normatively important, and easily understood by large audiences. The domains are equally weighted. Within each domain, the objective indicators are given higher weights while the subjective and self-reported indicators are assigned lower weights.
The 2010 GNH Survey:
The Gross National Happiness survey was carried out in 2010 with representative samples taken at district and regional levels. The survey was administered using the GNH questionnaire which gathered data on a comprehensive picture of the wellbeing of Bhutanese. The survey gathered data from 7142 respondents; 6476 or 90.7% of the respondents had sufficient data to be included in the GNH Index.
The 2010 GNH Index: Highlights
The methodology basically provides three types of results: headcount, intensity and the overall GNH index. Headcount refers to the percentage of Bhutanese who are considered happy, and intensity is the average sufficiency enjoyed by the Bhutanese.
- Headcount = 40.9% – This means that 41% of Bhutanese have sufficiency in six or more of the nine domains and are considered ‘happy’.
- Intensity = 43.4% -The 59% of Bhutanese who are not considered ‘happy’ lack sufficiency in 43% of the domains. Thus unhappy Bhutanese on average lack sufficiency in just under four domains and enjoy sufficiency in just over five domains.
- GNH Index = 0.743 – the GNH Index ranges from 0 to 1. A higher number is better. It reflects the percentage of Bhutanese who are happy and the percentage of domains in which not-yet-happy people have achieved sufficiency (headcount and intensity).
- Men are happier than women on average.
- Of the nine domains, Bhutanese have the most sufficiency in health, then ecology, psychological wellbeing, and community vitality.
- In urban areas, 50% of people are happy; in rural areas it is 37%.
- Urban areas do better in health, living standards and education. Rural areas do better in community vitality, cultural resilience, and good governance.
- Happiness is higher among people with a primary education or above than among those with no formal education, but higher education does not affect GNH very much.
- The happiest people by occupation include civil servants and monks/anim. Interestingly, the unemployed are happier than corporate employees, housewives, farmers or the national work force.
- Unmarried people and young people are among the happiest.
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