How Covid impacted happiness in 2020

Bengalureans talk about what brought them joy, and what didn’t

At 139, India is ranked close to the bottom in the World Happiness Report that covers 149 countries.

The report this year focuses mainly on the effects of Covid-19. Metrolife asked Bengalureans for their take on the findings.

Dr Prashanth N Srinivas, Public health researcher

The lack of physical activity combined with depleting mental health affected a great chunk of the Indian population throughout 2020. For adolescents and teenagers especially, an entire year of staying at home has impacted mental health in devious ways. The major effects of Covid are yet to come; we have only scratched the surface.

Change desired: Bring back the ‘public’ in our daily life. For people to be happier, we need more open public spaces, parks, better public transport and health sectors, anganwadis. We need to pull back from privatising and capitalising on everything around us.

Neha Mummigatti, Psychotherapist

The lack of personal contact and human interaction over the last year definitely impacted the public’s mental health. Plus, there is a notion that home is a safe space, but that is not the case for everyone. If problems existed with primary relationships within the family, being confined at home might have made them worse. Women do a lot of unpaid care work for the family. With the entire family being stuck at home, women were under stress in terms of caregiving.

Change desired: As a society, we need to work on getting over the stigma that surrounds mental health. Emotional wellness needs greater importance.

Deepali Jain, student

Shifting from classrooms to online classes was an overwhelming and stressful journey in itself. On top of that, balancing assignments and exams with limited support from peers and professors wasn’t easy.

Change desired: We don’t have proper roads in this city, and government schools are in the worst possible condition. The government needs to improve basic infrastructure for people to be happy.

Shakti Swaminathan, Journalism professor

While I was safe at home with a secure job and pay, the pandemic was devastating for migrant labourers.

Change desired: The lack of freedom of choice is adding to the unhappiness of Indian citizens. Also, we have become way too conscious about what we say or do. That must change.

Finland on top again

Last week, the World Happiness Report 2021 was released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Finland was once again crowned the world’s happiest country. while India ranked 139 among the 149 countries. In 2019, India was ranked 140th. The annual report ranks nations based on six criteria: gross domestic product, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perception of corruption.

While the first two criteria are based on hard data, the rest are all based on surveys conducted by Gallup World Poll and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

Surveys ask respondents to indicate on a 1-10 scale. “A sample size of 2,000 to 3,000 is collected, which is large enough to give a fairly good estimate at the national level. It is combined with the GDP and life expectancy rate,” says Swati Ganeshan, network manager of Sustainable Development Sustainable Network, South Asia Secretariat.

Dr Prashanth N Srinivas, faculty at the Institute of Public Health, says the index must be taken with a grain of salt. “Indices are statistical constructs, and we don’t know whose data was collected and how. If you’re talking about India’s happiness index, were the Adivasis a part of the survey too? I seriously doubt that,” he says.