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9Th Gnh Survey A COMPASS TOWARDS A JUST AND HARMONIOUS SOCIETY 2015 GNH Survey Report དཔལ་འ&ག་(བ་འ*ག་+་བ། Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH Research A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society 2015 GNH Survey Report: Copyright © Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH Research, 2016 First published 2016 ISBN 978-99936-14-86-9 དཔལ་འ&ག་(བ་འ*ག་+་བ། Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH Research Post Box No. 1111 Thimphu, Bhutan Phone: 975-2-321005, 321007 Fax: 975-2-321001 Email: [email protected] www.bhutanstudies.org.bt www.grossnationalhappiness.com His Majesty the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Her Majesty the Queen Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck His Royal Highness the Gyalsey, Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society Foreword [W]e all know that our country belongs to a stream of civilization where the explicit purpose of the government is to create enabling conditions for our citizens to pursue happiness. Gross National Happiness or GNH is most important for Bhutan mainly because: a. His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo has gifted Gross National Happiness to His people, b. Gross National Happiness is more holistic and important than Gross National Product, c. Gross National Happiness is development with values, d. The end objective of GNH is to ensure that we have a just, equal and harmonious society, and e. Our sacred Constitution stipulates “The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.” So, for us, it is more important to know the situation of GNH….The Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research has conducted the GNH survey last year between January and May. A total of 7,153 Bhutanese were interviewed with a response rate of 81%. The interview covered both rural and urban residents, men and women, youth and elderly, farmers, civil servants, businessmen, students, LG members, armed forces personnel and monks… The survey studied nine different domains that contribute to a person’s happiness. .. a. Living standards – material comforts measured by income, financial security, housing, asset ownership. b. Health – both physical and mental health. c. Education – types of knowledge, values and skills. d. Good governance – how people perceive government functions. e. Ecological diversity and resilience – peoples’ perception on environment. f. Time use – how much time is spent on work, non-work, sleep; work-life balance. g. Psychological wellbeing – quality of life, life satisfaction and spirituality. h. Cultural diversity and resilience – strength of cultural traditions and festivals. i. Community vitality – relationships and interaction within 1 A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society community, social cohesion and volunteerism. The 2015 GNH index shows that on the scale of zero to one measurement, the happiness of our people has increased from 0.743 in 2010 to 0.756 in 2015. That is, 1.8% overall increase. a. 91.2 % of people reported experiencing happiness, and b. 43.4% of people said that they are deeply happy. But, the survey also generated some significant general findings and these include: a. One, our people are healthier. b. Two, educated people are happier compared to uneducated. c. Three, living standards have improved. d. Four, people living in urban areas are happier than those living in rural areas. e. Five, farmers are less happy than other professions. f. Six, men are happier than women. g. Seven, government services need to be improved. h. Eight, more needs to be done to strengthen our culture and traditions. i. Nine, people feel less responsible for conserving environment. I would like to emphasize that it is important for the Government, Parliament, Local Governments, civil servants and civil society organizations to take the GNH survey results seriously. It is also equally important for the communities and, better still, all citizens to learn from the survey findings and improve our lives. His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo has gifted us the GNH and rest of the world admires it. It is important for us to practice GNH at home. Therefore, we must take the findings seriously. Honorable Prime Minister of Bhutan. THE STATE OF THE NATION; SEVENTH SESSION OF THE SECOND PARLIAMENT OF BHUTAN 5 JULY 2016 2 A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society Acknowledgements This report provides findings of the 2015 GNH Survey conducted between January and May 2015. The Survey was funded by the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Special thanks to CBS researchers, namely Chhimi Dem, Kuenzang Lhadon, Tshering Phuntsho, Sangay Chophel, Sangay Thinley, Pema Thinley, Melam Choezang, Bhim Bahadur Poudyel, Dawa Zangmo Tamang, Tila Maya Sharma, Jigme Thinley, Jigme Phuntsho, Passang Lhamo Dukpa, Tashi Tshering, Ngawang Lhamo, Yangrey Lhamo, and Tsheten Dorji for supervising and facilitating the field work. We are grateful to Sonam Dorji for designing data entry forms and facilitating data entry works. We deeply acknowledge the 66 enumerators who worked hard to undertake the long interviews and ensuring quality data collection and entry. We would like to thank National Statistics Bureau (NSB) for their assistance in providing listings and developing sampling frame for the survey. Our appreciation also goes to the JICA’s technical team, namely Yoshi Takahashi and Shunsuke Tanabe, for their support on sampling procedures. Besides, the report benefitted much from the comments and suggestions from Yoshi Takahashi and Yukiko Uchida. We thank Sabina Alkire, Director of Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), who helped immensely in writing the chapter on GNH Index. Furthermore, we appreciate the support given by all Dzongdags, Drungpas, Gups, Tshogpas, Chuepoens and other officials of the twenty Dzongkhags. Thanks are also due to all the individuals whom we interviewed. We would like to thank the World Bank Country Office, Bhutan, for lending their tablets to conduct field survey using Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI). In particular, we thank Michael Wild for his invaluable technical support in designing questionnaire forms for the CAPI. 3 A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society 4 A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society Executive Summary Since the foundation of Bhutan, spirituality and compassion have been integrated with governance. Furthermore, this integration has occurred at both the personal and the institutional level. This report opens by tracing the history of this imaginative integration, which was crystallized by His Majesty the Fourth King into the idea of GNH. As Bhutan has developed and encounters with other societies expanded, the spirituality of compassion that earlier was embedded in civil servants’ via personal practice has been made more explicit, more articulate and uses modern technologies. One expression of this is the development of the GNH Index, which opens a wider angle onto people’s lives. Survey data are used to provides information on all of these relevant areas. And the GNH Survey and Index are used to clarify areas in which the conditions for happiness exist and those where public action is required to establish the conditions of happiness. As the GNH research of the Centre for Bhutan Studies is designed to inform action, the first chapter also describes the associated policy and programme screening tools as well as other actions by which GNH has been advanced. The remainder of this report presents the findings of the 2015 Gross National Happiness (GNH) Survey, which collected information from across Bhutan on many aspects of Bhutanese people’s lives that relate to wellbeing measurement and analysis. The Survey was used to construct the 2015 GNH Index, and to compare levels and the composition of GNH across groups, and across the period 2010-2015. The GNH Survey and the GNH Index created from it are designed to guide actions to advance GNH across Bhutan This report, called A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society, presents the detailed findings from the survey for use by both experts and the general public. It also gives strong guidance for action in public policy, by the private sector, and among civil society organisations. GNH At-a-glance To view GNH in Bhutan at-a-glance, we use the GNH Index. The GNH Index explores each persons’ life in nine domains: (1) psychological wellbeing, (2) health, (3) education, (4) time use, (5) cultural diversity 5 A Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society and resilience, (6) good governance, (7) community vitality, (8) ecological diversity and resilience, and lastly (9) living standards. As the Honorable Prime Minister explained the GNH Index, “When we look one by one at how citizens in Bhutan are faring on these nine domains, we catch a glimpse of their wellbeing. Looking at individual portraits for thousands of Bhutanese provides a snapshot of how our quality of life is, and how it is changing, for better or worse. Its simplicity makes it a highly effective communication and evaluation tool” (Tobgay 2015). So what does the 2015 GNH index tell us? If we consider four groups of Bhutanese according to their level of GNH, 43.4% of Bhutanese are deeply or extensively happy, with 91.2% enjoying sufficiency in at least 50% of the GNH domains. Percentage of 2015 GNH Index people who are Deeply Happy 8.4% Extensively Happy 35.0% Narrowly Happy 47.9% Unhappy 8.8% GNH is not driven by any one factor, nor does it apply only to one region, one age, one language group, or one occupation. Yet it does affect groups differently. Across different groups within Bhutan, o Men tend to be happier than women o Urban residents tend to be happier than rural o More educated people tend to be happier And across districts, GNH was highest in Gasa, Bumthang, Thimphu, and Paro, and lowest in Dagana, Mongar, Tashi Yangtse, and Trongsa.
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