- what is physical quality of life index?
2.Define the terms:
• gross national happiness.
• world happiness report.
• human poverty index
- The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) is an attempt to measure the quality of life or well-being of a country. The value is the average of three statistics: basic literacy rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy at age one, all equally weighted on a 0 to 100 scale.It was developed for the Overseas Development Council in the mid-1970s by Morris David Morris, as one of a number of measures created due to dissatisfaction with the use of GNP as an indicator of development. PQLI might be regarded as an improvement but shares the general problems of measuring quality of life in a quantitative way. It has also been criticized because there is considerable overlap between infant mortality and life expectancy.
- In 1979, D Morris constructed a composite PQLI. he found that most of the indicators were inputs to development process rather than result of the development processes. these indicators reflected that economically less developed countries are simply underdeveloped version of industrialized countries.
- therefore combines three component indicators of infant mortality, life expectancy and basic literacy to measure performance in meeting the basic needs of the people .all components are equally weighted on a one to hundred scale, where one represent the worst performance by any country and hundred is the best performance for life extensive the PQLI is relatively neutral it measures result no inputs.
- Increase in national income and per capita income are not the real indicators of economic development, as it has a number of limitations. Increasing incomes of the country are concentrated in the hands of a few people, which is not development. The development of a country should be such that the living standards of the poor rise, and the basic requirements of the citizens are fulfilled. Keeping this in mind, Morris Davis Morris presented the physical quality of life index, in short known as the PQLI. In this index, betterment of physical quality of life of human beings is considered economic development. The level of physical quality of life determines the level of economic development. If any country’s physical quality of life is higher than that of the other country, then that country is considered as more developed.
3.Quality of life index:
Quality of life includes everything from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, safety, security to freedom, religious beliefs, and the environment.QOL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment. Health related QOL (HRQOL) is an evaluation of QOL and its relationship with health.Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income.
Standard indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment but also the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), quality of life is defined as “the individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals.” In comparison to WHO’s definitions, the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale defines quality of life as “life quality (in this case, physical pain) at a precise moment in time. The Economist intelligence unit where to be born index attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for healthy, safe and prosperous life in the year ahead.0 it is based on a method that links the results of subjective life satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries along with the forward looking element.
• Determinants of quality of life:
The nine quality of life factors and the indicators used to present these factors are as follows:
1.Material well being: GDP per person at PPP in $.
2.Health : life expectancy at birth in years.
3.Political stability and security: political stability and security ratings.
4.Family life: divorce rate converted into index of 1 to 5.
- Community life: dummy variable taking value 1, if country has either high rate of Church attendance or Trade union membership ; zero otherwise.
- Climate and geography: latitude to distinguish between warmer and colder climes.
- Job security: unemployment rate in percentage.
- Political freedom: average of indices of political and civil liberties scale of 1 to 7.
- Gender equality ratio of average male and female earning latest available data.
4.Gross national happiness:
The term “Gross National Happiness” was coined in 1979 during an interview by a British journalist for the Financial Times at Bombay airport when the then king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, said “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product”, expressing a concept that had been developed during the 1970s.
In 2011, The UN General Assembly passed Resolution “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development” urging member nations to follow the example of Bhutan and measure happiness and well-being and calling happiness a “fundamental human goal.”
The phrase gross national happiness was coined in 1972 by bhutan’s fourth Dragon king,jigme single wangchuck originally, the phrase represented a commitment to building an economy that would serve bhutan’s culture based on Buddhist spiritual values, instead of Western material development gauged by GDP.
GNH is a much richer objective than GDP aur economic growth. In GNH material well being is important, but it is also important to enjoy sufficient well-being in things like community, culture ,governance, knowledge and wisdom, health ,spiritually and physiological welfare, and balance use of the use of time and harmony with the environment. The GNH is to achieve a balanced development in all the facets of life that are essential for our happiness.
The GNH is a holistic and sustainable approach to development, which balances material and non material values with the conviction that humans want to search for happiness. From and economic perspective criticism state that because GNH depends on our series of subjective judgement about well being ,governments may be able to define GNH in a way that suit their interest. economics professor .Deirdre McCloskey criticizes such measurement as unscientific.
- World happiness report:
The world happiness report is a measure of happiness published by the United Nations sustainable development solutions network .the WHR is edited by John F. helliwell, Richard layard and Jeffrey Sachs.
In july 2011,the UN general assembly passed a resolution inviting members countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use this to help guide their public policies.
On 2 April 2012, the first UN high level meeting called happiness and well-being:defining a new economic paradigm, are chaired by Prime Minister jaime thinley of Bhutan decided to launch the WHR.
World Happiness Reports were issued in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 (an update), 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. In addition to ranking countries happiness and well-being levels, each report has contributing authors and most focus on a subject. The data used to rank countries in each report is drawn from the Gallup World Poll,[13] as well as other sources such as the World Values Survey, in some of the reports. The Gallup World Poll questionnaire[14] measures 14 areas within its core questions: (1) business & economic, (2) citizen engagement, (3) communications & technology, (4) diversity (social issues), (5) education & families, (6) emotions (well-being), (7) environment & energy, (8) food & shelter, (9) government and politics, (10) law & order (safety), (11) health, (12) religion & ethics, (13) transportation, and (14) work.
Variable measured reveals a populated weighted average score on a scale running from 0 to 10 that is tracked over time and compared against other countries. These variables currently include real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy ,freedom to make life choices, generosity , and perceptions corruption.
It is to be noted that a Bhutan is the first and so far only country to have officially adopted the GNH instead of GDP as their main development indicator.
Sustainable development solutions network was commissioned by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in 2012 to mobilize scientific and technical expertise price from Academia civil society, and the private sector to support practical problem solving for sustainable development at local ,National, and global scales.
- Human poverty index:
Human poverty index was an indication of the standard of living in a country, developed by the United Nation to complement the HDI and was first reported as part of the human development report in 1997 . it was considered to be better reflect the extent of deprivation in developed countries compared to the HDI. in 2010 ,it was supplanted by the UN’S multidimensional poverty index.
The HPI concentrates on the deprivation in the three essential elements of human life already reflected in the HDI: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HPI is derived separately for developing countries (HPI-1) and a group of select high-income OECD countries (HPI-2) to better reflect socio-economic differences and also the widely different measures of deprivation in the two groups. The Human Development reports website summarises this as a composite index measuring deprivation in the three basic dimensions captured in the HD I- long and healthy life, knowledge and addition standard of living’. the human development report website summarises this as a composite index measuring deprivation is the four basic dimensions captured in the HD i-a long and healthy life , knowledge and the decent standard of living hi fun and also capturing social exclusion.
It can help address MDGs strategically and early monitor impacts of policy intervention .the MP I can be adapted to the national level using indicators and weights that make sense for the region or the country, it can also be adopted for National poverty eradication programmes, and it can be used to study changes over time.
