GNH philosophy was propounded by the Fourth Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck.
His Majesty said, “National development must never be at the cost of happiness and spiritual contentment of the people.”
GNH is technically defined as a “multi-dimensional development approach seeking to achieve a harmonious balance between material well-being and the spiritual, emotional and cultural needs of society.” The keywords being harmonious balance – that may be achieved by balancing the needs of the body with those of the mind.
The
Great Fourth was convinced that Bhutan’s aim of development should not be merely
economic prosperity but contentment and happiness, ‘which includes political
stability, social harmony and Bhutanese culture and way of life.’
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| Nine Domains of GNH |
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a metric used by Bhutan to measure economic happiness and moral progress as an alternative to GDP.
GNH evaluates prosperity through quality-of-life factors such as
well-being and economic factors, rather than purely monetary measures.
GNH measures the quality of
development in a more holistic way and believes that the beneficial development
of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side.
It is currently being used as the overall framework for Bhutan’s development programmes and increasingly being presented to the outside world as a new model of development, which takes into account many other factors influencing human well-being besides economic growth.
Article 9, Section 2, states “The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.”
***The General Assembly of the United Nations, on 12 July 2012, proclaimed 20 March as the International Day of Happiness.The world has recognised that happiness and well-being are universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings.
-Bhutanese Philosophy of Development ){kind=link}
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