Exploring the Meaningfulness and Relevance of Subjective Well-being for India

Abstract

des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz-bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. / This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Neff, D. (2010). Exploring the Meaningfulness and Relevance of Subjective Well-being for India. Indian Journal of Human Development, 4(2) Key words: Subjective well-being, Well-being, Poverty, India. During the last decade in particular, the concepts of happiness and subjective wellbeing (SWB) have received growing attention across a range of disciplines. This paper engages with these new developments in the measurement of well-being and tries to explore the question as to whether SWB could enhance or complement the current practice of well-being measurement in India. For this purpose, the questions of the definition of SWB and the questions of the meaningfulness and relevance of SWB as a well-being proxy for India are discussed. It is argued that SWB, defined as life satisfaction, can be regarded as meaningful and relevant in the Indian context. It can enhance current well-being measurement in India, since it does not define people by their poverty or deprivation sets alone, but instead takes into account of what people conceive as well-being, people's aspirations, their agency and needs and wants. Terms of use: This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Redistribution -no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, nontransferable, individual and limited right to using this document. This document is solely intended for your personal, noncommercial use. All of the copies of this documents must retain all copyright information and other informationThe paper is structured as follows: firstly, the definitions of SWB are compared and critically discussed. Secondly, the meaningfulness and relevance of the concept of SWB for India are reconsidered. Thirdly, an exploratory analysis is undertaken, which provides some insights into SWB in India, and lastly, the main arguments are summarized. DEFINITION OF SWBAlthough scholars use the term 'happiness', they often tend to refer to rather different things. Different measurement practices of happiness are due to the distinct underlying Indian Journal of Human Development, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2010 * GIGA Institute of Asian Studies, Hamburg, Germany. Email: neff@giga-hamburg.de 330 Indian Journal of Human Development definitions of happiness. The range of definitions of happiness and the resulting diverging measurement practice and the range of disciplines involved have resulted in some confusion regarding the actual concept of happiness/SWB. There is a necessity to differentiate between the concepts of happiness and SWB. Nettle ( , in Frey, 2008 usefully distinguishes between the three concepts of happiness, namely momentary feelings of joy and pleasure (hedonic happiness), the eudaimonic happiness (quality of life), and the overall conte...