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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