BHUTAN, THE LAND OF SERENITY – 3

ALL ABOUT GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS

Karma was having breakfast with us. For him, the food and accommodation were provided free by the hoteliers as a tourist-guide with one condition to fulfil. He has to wear the knee-length Gho as it is compulsory in Bhutan that everybody wears the national dress during duty time.

He gave us a brief idea of Gross National Happiness without going into the details. The term was first coined by the Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk in 1972. The underlying principle concurs with the concept of Dharma and is nothing new. According to Dharma, the spiritual and mental well-being is more important than material prosperity. He found out that in order to achieve happiness, the subjects of his Druk Gylapo - dragon kingdom – had to be empowered to make decisions as a part of a collective responsibility.

Leave no one behind, he said.

Happy children walking to school

His aim was to turn Bhutan into a constitutional monarchy with emphasis on GNH. In this scheme of things, the King of Bhutan was to act as the conscience of GNH. Thus, in 2001, the fourth King commanded the drafting of a constitution by a 39-member committee chaired by the Chief Justice. The draft Constitution was distributed throughout the country in 2005 and 2006. One member from each family was invited to attend the meetings. The King Jigme Singue had abdicated his kingdom in favour of his eldest son Dasho Khesar in 2006 itself. Soon after, first general elections were held in March 2008. The Constitution of Bhutan was adopted on 18^th July 2008 by the first elected parliament Tshogdu.

Little girl waiting for the municipality truck to hand over waste materials

Huh, democracy is thrust upon us, lamented the Bhutanese people.

Yes, that was not an exaggeration. There was no need for the King to usher the era of democracy. He being a very wise man primarily due to his grounding in Dharma, might have had a foreboding of the events in future. The people of neighbouring Nepal were increasingly turning hostile to their King and eventually the violent civil war claimed 12,000 lives. Drawing inference from the incident, he might have deducted that any attempt to install a ruler on account of his lineage and not on his merit could spell trouble for the hundred year old dynasty of the Wangchuks.  He relinquished power as Head of Government to the Tshogdu while retaining his role as Head of State. What’s more, he even granted power to the people’s parliament, the authority to remove the King through a vote of 
no–confidence!  In my opinion, this  act upholding the highest ideals of Dharma is unparalleled in history except perhaps, the relinquishment of the throne by Emperor Asoka after winning the Kalinga war.  However, it is to be noted that Jigme Singue forcibly evicted one lakh odd Ethnic Nepalese in a cleansing operation and most of them still live in refugee camps. (This piece of information was gathered from the Net).

There was a forerunner to the application of GNH called Kidu prevalent in Bhutan in which the ruling King alongwith his son and other officers travelled extensively through the Kingdom which included remote areas too. They identified people who needed help. Besides, anybody could appeal to the King directly. In fact, the Gylapo stopped for every potential appellant along the road!

The model is adopted and replicated throughout Bhutan these days. There are Kidu Chiefs in each of the 20 districts of Bhutan to locate and help the poorest of the poor such as students unable to afford even the free education available in the country.

Formally a system for GNH is put in place. The domains of GNH are,

1.      Good governance

2.      Community vitality

3.      Psychological well-being

4.      Cultural diversity

5.      Living standards

6.      Education

7.      Health

8.      Ecological diversity

9.      Time use

Besides, there are 33 main indicators and 116 sub indicators available. Samples are selected at random from the cross section of the Bhutanese society and the information is compiled by the GNH Secretariat.  Their report is submitted to 15 member GNH Commission constituted by the parliament. They review the document adding their deliberations and suggestions and the final report is submitted to the King. Of course, the King can add to it or correct it for greater common good. Implementation is carried out by the various Ministries and the exercise is repeated at regular intervals.

It is found that there is a decline in the first four domains whereas it showed a marked improvement in the remaining five. Of course, the results showed.

Only 1.4% of the population lived on less than $1.9 a day in 2017 in Bhutan. You must consider the fact that South Asian average is 15%. The Indian figure in 2012 is 21.2%. In short, the Bhutanese could eradicate absolute poverty from their country. Great achievement, this!

female weavers engrossed in work

Bhutan fares well among South Asian countries on all Human Development Indices (HDI) except mean years of schooling. HDI of Bhutan is 0.612 in 2017. Unemployment is 2.4% (in 2017).  Another remarkable achievement is GDP growth rate (@ 7.6%) is the third highest in the world. Obviously, happiness has a direct bearing on productivity.

The Gross National Happiness of Bhutan is 0.756. I don’t know what exactly it means!

I asked Karma whether he could feel any change before and after (the introduction of GNH). He said he couldn’t find any distinct difference but the feeling that somebody at the top cared for you was reassuring!

Karma was average in studies though he managed his education in Government Institutions. In Bhutan, only the meritorious get into government colleges and the deserving students get financial help as well. Those who pass out get placement invariably, mostly in government departments. The pay and other service conditions are far better in the government sector. Karma has a degree in Management though he got a job with a Public Sector Bank. He was sanctioning loans to rural farmers. The monotony of the routine job made him crest-fallen and he decided to call it quits. He started a new venture, Brilliant Bhutan Travels and the struggling is not yet over. He is 33 years old with a working wife but not exactly settled, at least to lead a life of his expectations. He says such cases are plenty in Bhutan! Thankfully, the Bhutanese government is concentrating on high-end education now, but there is a hitch. The employment opportunities in Bhutan is not technology driven, it’s still an agrarian economy. Exporting electricity to India accounts for 25% of the total domestic revenue and 40% of the total exports. As everybody knows, the employment opportunities in hydro-electric power generation and distribution is bleak. New avenues are to be introduced for absorbing young and enterprising people like Karma and it seems the government is moving in the right direction.

                                                                                                                        (contd.)

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