May 6, 2021
Gross National Happiness with Saamdu Chetri
Dr Saamdu Chetri was born in a cowshed in rural Bhutan. He holds a PhD and a Masters Degree in Commerce and in 2008 was appointed to government office by the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan. He headed under the PMO Good Governance, was responsible for developing the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre in Dewaling, Bumthang, Bhutan in 2011, and served as its Executive Director until 2017.
What inspired you to write something for children to help them become more caring towards people & nature? Did you always wish to write a children’s book?
It was my long time dream to write a book based on the three connections one may have in life — self with self, self with others and self with nature. I had written the piece almost sixteen years back, but there were no takers until I decided to publish it on Amazon. I had a good time to edit in July, when my wife was under treatment in Dehradun.
I always knew that if we needed to bring the change that we wish to, in less than a lifetime, it needs to begin at the home and the school.
No one believes this, but it is the truth. When I am speaking in forums for equity (mainstreaming, alliance, equality, whatever the name be) or contentment (freedom from greed, excessive desires, pride, anger, jealousy) to create a safer and saner world, I urge that we must begin with children at their schools (rather from home, if parents are educated). Education is not purely academic, we all know this — but greed has blinded us. We will all fall into the abyss with our eyes open if we do not change our ways of living life on this planet.
In fact, I have written another book on raising happy children which will be published soon by a publishing company in Mumbai.
How does the narrative style, anecdotes & content change when explaining the same topic to adults vs. school children?
I would not separate the style, anecdotes and content for adults and children — because we still have a child in us. We pretend to be ‘grown ups’ which maybe true by age but not so much by our subconscious minds. We still live with what we have collected between the ages of zero to eight. Of course, if I had to write for adults alone, I would make it more factual and with implications to aid realisation. And also use posh-sounding words — which may mean less because of its multiplicity in meaning. Yet this would be appreciated, because we have forgotten what it is like to be ‘simple’. Although simplicity is the existence in harmony, Who wants to be simple?
GNH measures both subjective and objective conditions through periodic national surveys. Subjective elements are largely based on self-reports of numerous aspects of the survey respondent’s life.
The nine domains of GNH are equally weighted to reflect equal importance of each domain of happiness. The domains broadly reflect the purposes of governance and values of the society.
Nature’s aesthetic stimuli also matters for happiness. These can be blighted by modernisation and urbanisation. On the other hand, living in nature comes at a price to small farmers. They presently lose a substantial proportion of crop outputs and livestock every year to wild life ranging from tigers to porcupines. This heavy price that Bhutanese farmers pay for conservation, that affects their livelihood and happiness, is tracked in the GNH index. It is a difficult policy issue.
Coming to GNH, it is interesting how happiness has been given equal priority to the GDP. But what is the key to balancing economical, environmental & social development for uniform growth of a nation or even an organization? We often hear people talk about the economic vs. ecological dilemma — when a region is developed for better economic gains the ecosystem and socio cultural dynamic of the region is significantly altered, mostly for the worst. What are your thoughts on this?
I fully agree with your thoughts — everything changes when we assign importance to economic development undermining ecology. According to 2017 WB data, we are consuming 1.7 times the biocapacity of the earth. While 20 percent of the population takes away less than 2 percent of the total production another 20 percent of the population takes away 76 percent of the production. What does this mean? It means that there is enough resources being wasted on this planet, that if distributed well would be enough to feed 21 billion people.
Over 70 per cent of the arable land is used for the dairy and meat industry. Both of these productions have been proven by research as unhealthy. People who have understood this are changing their inner ecosystem by becoming vegan.
GNH is not against economic growth but against the destruction of nature and the spewing off of greenhouse gases due to the unsustainable use of fossil fuels as it continues to contribute towards global warming.
On the other hand, GNH may not measure the ecological capital as there is no necessity for Bhutan to do so — as 72 percent of its land is covered with forest and trees. Moreover, Bhutan is over 80 percent green due to alpine meadows and shrubs in the high mountains. A study by the team of Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski, and Ron Colman in 2012 found that Bhutan produced over Nu 760 billion worth of natural capital and used only 39 per cent. This makes us donors of ecology. This is why Bhutan is carbon negative, helping to sequester global carbon from our immediate neighbours like India in the south and Tibet (China) in the north.
Our constitution demands that Bhutan must at all times be 60% covered with vibrant forests. Given this, GNH is a Bhutanese measure. If it has to be adopted in other parts of the world, it may not work because it needs to be adapted. GNH measures will not be stagnant. They will evolve with the country’s growth.
Bhutan also has measures for air and water quality regulation. These largely depend on how the disposables are managed. Like, I said with time, these measures will also find a place in the GNH. To give you an example, the World Happiness Report is derived from the Gallup Poll that asks one overriding question — how satisfied are you in your life — and the rating is done on a scale to ten. The answers are subsequently combined with country reports to decide their global rank. Bhutan does not follow this method for our happiness index. The Bhutanese measure considers everything that matters for now, not in the future.
Yes, wild animals are one of the major causes for over 30 percent of crop waste and our government compensates citizens if the crop damage is more than the normal average of the crop. The government also invests in protective measures for farmers. There are still many villages within the park areas. People wish and choose to live there and be with nature.
Frankly, the Bhutanese are rated happy by visitors to the country as they see people with smiles and laughter — I pray this remains forever. The reason is its vibrant culture. People may be very modern but they have not forgotten their ancestral storytelling through dance, music, art and the ecology. These two factors — the culture and ecology — make Bhutan a very happy nation.
Ultimately, no one lives forever, after a while everyone will want to pass on. It is also a desire within me. We do not take anything we make whether they are relationships, love, money, etc. We leave them behind, it will belong to someone else again. Despite our wish to be happy, big homes and a lot of money do not give us happiness. Happiness is within and conditions are provided by GNH through a five-yearly planning exercise.
There is growing popularity for Bhutan as a hub for ecotourism — what impacts of this have you observed on Bhutan’s Economy as well as the natural environment? Have all socio-economic groups benefited from the growth in tourism? What are the challenges in the industry and its impacts on GNH?
Ecotourism is still young in Bhutan. The government has been very cautious and it is slowly but surely growing. It has a lot of potential for farmers as we have witnessed because they provide homestays and local produce for food. The challenges for GNH could be inequity, changes to the culture (apart from positive evolution), value deterioration, increase in greed and as an aftermath safety and security may become a challenge, ecological damage due to the use of non-degradable items and so on. However, all these challenges of the industry can be addressed if the policy of high value impact ecotourism is still considered.
On the other hand, the challenges to the industry would be the investment for building up ecotourism in terms of economic feasibility and having such an enormous income generating opportunity, quality may begin to be compromised. The other challenge for the industry is inadequate infrastructure such as roads, communication and housing
Which of your learnings about the GNH model for development are relevant for your neighbour India, if it seeks to shift its policies in a similar direction?
In fact India has all domains in use. However, they are not amalgamated under one umbrella unlike the GNH. They cannot afford to do so. In Bhutan, we do not have an injurious industry that spews carbon or other chemicals into the atmosphere, but India has many. Most of the resources of the government come from taxes from these Industries and corporations that use unsustainable energy for production. If the GNH principles were to be applied by the government, India would have to stop all these giant industries that run on unsustainable energy.
Not only India, GNH can be applied by any government. However, the indicators within the domains have to be changed to suit that particular nation. It also needs to stand outside of the government body, else political movements can sway the GNH (or whatever the name may be given like Wellbeing, Better Life, Canadian Wellbeing Index, Genuine Progress Index).
Bhutan has a niche cultural mix compared to its Asian neighbors. What are your key focus areas under the GNH pillar of Preservation & Promotion of Culture? Are there instances when certain ethnicities need more effort to gain cultural acceptance among the people of Bhutan? (with reference to Nepali immigrants who belong to lower socio economic classes & frequently clash with the government for more rights, opportunities)
I feel it is a perception of the people from outside and a claim of those who left Bhutan as refugees. The constitution mandates that we have to keep our culture alive and vibrant. Although there is a claim that Nepali is not taught in the southern schools. The South had ‘patsalas’ to learn the language from and it was the ‘Lhotsampa’ (people of the south) officers who decided to eliminate the language from schools, as it would be a burden for students. Lhotshampas are the latest immigrants in the 1900s, according to the claim. However before the border demarcation with India, there are traces of Nepali settlements during British India. My grandfather migrated to Bhutan from lower Sikkim in 1910.
There is equality in everything in Bhutan. In fact, the King His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck himself supports bright southern students and sends them to study abroad.
How is the concept of GNH conveyed for the kingdom’s common people to grasp? Is this step (Awareness about the motive) also one of the areas of focus under the GNH pillar of ‘Good Governance’?
GNH has been applied in the country now for about 50 years. We did not measure it but we lived it. As the world did not believe it, we had to measure it. The UNGA gave two resolutions based on the concept that was presented at the UN — 20th March as the International day of Happiness, and Happiness: A holistic approach to development.
The common people know what it means. However, the government has embedded the indicators in its plans and every ‘Gewog’ (the lowest administrative block) has to share this information with its communities through villages. Every Gewog office has a board with all the indicators and funds to match them. Its applications are also indicated.
Further, the deliberation of the plans whether they are five year, interim, or others are always made through the GNH principles. This helps the people to understand the measures, as the concept is not alien to them.
At the International Conference on GNH in Thimphu, Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) and Gross National Happiness Research (GNH) proposed GNH of Business Assessment Tool to certify businesses. The tool was developed based on the framework of GNH and its nine domains. The nine domains assess two components — worker happiness (psychological well being, health, time-use, education and living standards), and organizational conditions for happiness (good governance, cultural diversity, community vitality and ecological diversity).
The survey found that in the overall happiness score of businesses, the top performers were from the service sector. Production sector scored the lowest. Karma Wangdi said that among the assessment scores of the nine domains, the production sector scored higher than the service sector only in the cultural domain. “This is because unlike business entities under the service sector, some businesses under the production sector producing arts and crafts related products pulled the sector up.”
The data is collected through surveys on one to one with employees and employers. Workers happiness has 29 indicators and 114 variables, and organisational conditions have 20 indicators and 102 variables. A few of the indicators are shared between the two blocks of domains. In fact in the first survey of 41 industries with 540 employees, only three industries were rated good — which has certain indicators behind them.
By far Bhutanese industries are not GNH friendly. They have a long way to go. I agree with Karma Wangdi. He is the expert in this area. Service sector is larger than production, which is very local. So the variations cannot be amplified unless they were passed through regression analysis.
What would be an apt measure of good governance in a business organization?
The apt measures in good governance are the use of sustainable resources such as natural, human, social and capital. Further, the rules and regulations supporting happiness of the employees and serving the government with taxes are freedom from corruption, equity in prerequisites to the employees, equity in gender, participation in decision making, sharing of profit, and respect for each other.
Saamdu Chetri’s experience and expertise range from rural development, micro-finance, teaching, and research to project management and administration. Dr Chetri has published widely, including ‘Money and Micro-enterprises’, and ‘Far Apart and Close Together’. He also contributed to the first book on Gross National Happiness and is editing a book on the Science of Happiness.
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