Mumbai: India ranked 82nd among 128 countries for generosity over the last 10 years, as per the 10th World Giving Index (WGI). 

Up to a third of Indians helped a stranger, one in four donated money, and one in five gave their time volunteering, the report said, attributing India’s low ranking to its strong culture of unorganised and informal giving to family, community and religion. It recommended more formal mechanisms of donating to charity.

The report, published online in October 2019, was based on surveys of 1.3 million people in 128 countries over the last 9 years (2009-2018). It asked interviewees if they had helped a stranger, donated money to charity or volunteered their time in the past month. The surveys used Gallup World Poll data and were commissioned by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), a UK charity that provides services and assistance to international charities and their donors.

India’s rank on the Index has yo-yoed vastly, the lowest being 134th in 2010 and the highest being 81st last year. This year’s report aggregated data for each country for the last 10 years. India’s overall WGI score this year was 26%.

Source: World Giving Index 2019 report

India and the World

Of the top 10 countries, seven are among the wealthiest in the world. Yet, global generosity is on the decline, stated the report, highlighting that individual giving is now lower in countries with long histories of philanthropy such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

“The top ranking countries will usually have a strong culture of giving, or are more developed,” said Meenakshi Batra, who leads CAF India, a non-profit organisation that works to enable effective giving. “Individuals have more resources to give and there is infrastructure for them to give to formal organisations.”

Source: World Giving Index 2019 report

India’s 26% WGI score was less than half of 58% scored by the United States in the top spot. China, with a score of 16%, was at the fag end of the index. The Asian giant also had the lowest score for all three measures considered–helping a stranger, donating money and volunteering.

New Zealand, on the other hand, was the only country to appear in the top 10 on all three counts.

India fails to match Asia’s pace

Five of the 10 countries to have improved their rankings the most on the giving index were in Asia. Indonesia, the country that improved its ranking the most, moved into the top 10 for donating money and volunteering. Sri Lanka achieved the highest score for volunteering in the world; at 46%, its volunteering score was more than double of India’s 19%.

The report attributed this rise in rankings to cultural factors. For example, a majority of people in Myanmar are practising Buddhists, 99% of whom are followers of the Theravada branch that mandates giving. Sri Lanka too has a high population of Theravada Buddhists.

Similarly, in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, giving is closely tied to the religious obligation of giving, zakaat. 

The improved rankings are also an outcome of countries’ economic development. “It is not a surprise that these Asian countries have been increasing [their ranking] due to their rising economic prosperity,” said Ingrid Srinath of the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana.

India was the least generous of the seven South Asian countries in the Index, behind neighbours Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. India’s economic growth in recent decades has been felt by fewer and fewer people, which may explain why its philanthropy is not increasing at a rate similar to that of its Asian counterparts, Srinath said.

Lower-income families are less likely to have donated or sponsored in the last 12 months (69%), than those with a household income of more than Rs 1.7 lakh (~$2,400) per month (82%), the report stated. “The study does not account for the degree of giving from an individual, only whether they are giving or not,” said Batra of CAF India.

“India also has more cleavages than other countries around it in terms of religion, class and caste,” said Srinath. “It is possible that these divides make people less inclined to commit to national philanthropic efforts.”

Under-reported giving

“In India, there is a strong culture of regularly helping and assisting each other,” said Batra. More Indians (64%) said they give money directly to people and families in need or to a church or religious organisation (64%) than to a non-profit or charitable organisation (58%), as per the India Giving Report, a country-specific report by the CAF Global Alliance, a network of organisations working in philanthropy and civil society.

Besides, India has over over 500 forms of traditional religious giving, such as Hindu daan and utsarg, Islamic zakaat, kums and sadaqa. “This form of giving may not show up on the Index because Indians consider this a family or a religious obligation,” said Batra. “For instance, it is commonplace for Indians to feed poor people outside places of worship, or serve a meal to pious and holy men. Those responding to the survey would not have counted this as giving, because they consider this to be their duty.”

Incidentally, upto 38% Indians said they would donate more if they knew how their money would be spent, and 32% would donate more if there was more transparency. “There is potential for organised non-profit organisations to provide more formal options of giving,” said Ben Russel of CAF.

Billionaires show little giving spirit

In 2017, the wealth held by India’s wealthiest 1% increased by Rs 20,913 billion ($303 billion). This was equivalent to the central government’s total budget that year, as per this report by Oxfam India.

The contribution of India’s richest to philanthropic activities has grown at a slower pace than the increase in their wealth, as reported by IndiaSpend earlier this year. Large contributions (more than Rs 10 crore) by ultra-high net worth individuals (individuals who have a net worth of more than Rs 25 crore) have decreased 4% since 2014.

India’s lowest WGI score in the last six years (22% in 2018) coincided with its reporting a record number of 121 billionaires–the third highest number of ultra-rich individuals in any country, behind China and the United States.

(Habershon, a graduate from the University of Manchester, is an intern with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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This is despite the report’s finding that India’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the standard of living, and healthy life expectancy, a marker of wellbeing, have trended upwards over the last three years.

Source: World Happiness Report 2018
 
Further, participants surveyed during 2017 for the current report expressed greater satisfaction with their personal freedom–the freedom to make life choices–as well as greater confidence in their national government.
 
Then what makes Indians less happy today than they were three years ago? And why are Indians the least happy people in the Indian subcontinent? Myanmar (130), Sri Lanka (116), Bangladesh (115), Nepal (101), Bhutan (97) and Pakistan (75) all rank higher than India, while neighbouring China stands at 86.
 
Indians are suffering the impact of weaker social support networks, a less generous society, and fewer reasons to experience positive emotions such as laughter, at a time when they are feeling more negative emotions such as worry and anger, social scientists have told IndiaSpend. At the same time, socio-economic inequity is preventing per capita GDP growth from translating into happier people.
 
Why higher per capita GDP has not made Indians happier
 
In July 2011, a UN General Assembly resolution recognised that “the gross domestic product indicator by nature was not designed to and does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of people”. It invited member-nations to develop measures to better reflect the pursuit of happiness and wellbeing to guide public policy.
 
Since 2012, with the exception of 2014, the UN has been publishing a report on the state of happiness in countries around the world, remarking on the causes of happiness and misery, and their policy implications, primarily based on the Gallup World Poll that specialises in tracking citizens’ opinions.
 
India recorded a higher growth rate in real GDP at constant prices between 2014-15 and 2016-17 than in the previous three years from 2011-12 to 2013-14, according to data from the World Bank.
 

Source: World Happiness Report 2018, World Bank
 
Per capita GDP is frequently used as an indicator of standard of living. However, that only works in a society where the distribution of income and wealth is reasonably equitable.
 
“In India, income, wealth or other forms of human capital inequalities are starkly visible,” Hema Swaminathan, chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, told IndiaSpend.
 
“Here, an accident of birth decides your life’s prospects, and with the steady erosion of the structures that could help individuals achieve mobility, such as the primary education system and public health system, little scope exists for social or economic mobility,” she said.
 
While per capita GDP is rising, socio-economic inequality is, too. In 2014, India recorded the widest income inequality since 1980, according to a report by the World Inequality Lab.
 
In 2013, 390 million Indians, making up the bottom half of India’s earning population, earned 67% of the share of the top 1%, which consisted of 7.8 million people. In 1980, India’s bottom 50% had earned 319% of the income of the richest 1%.
 
Social inequities militate against happiness, as a seminal study on the topic showed in 1970s U.S. Richard Easterlin, a professor of economics at the University of Southern California, showed how increases in income from 1946 to 1970 coincided with flat levels of reported happiness.
 
Recent data from the U.S. bear out this association, economist Jeffrey Sachs, co-editor of the World Happiness Report 2018, noted in the report. He added that absolute increases do matter for happiness, “albeit with a clearly declining marginal utility of income”.
 
More recently, scientists from the London School of Economics and Political Science examined data from the Gallup World Poll and the World Top Incomes Database and found that the more income is held by the richest 1% of a nation, the more likely individuals are to report lower levels of wellbeing, life satisfaction and more negative daily emotional experiences.
 
This is not to say that higher income does not matter. Very poor people, when their income increases, become happier as their basic needs are met. However, once these needs are fulfilled, they stop experiencing greater happiness with rising income if there is also growing inequality, as it leads to unfavourable comparisons, said Shreya Jha, a doctoral candidate in Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, U.K., who has studied well-being in the Indian context.
 
Indians worry more, feel sadder and angrier
 
In the last three years, Indians have reported experiencing fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions, two variables that influence World Happiness rankings.
 
Did you experience happiness and enjoyment during a greater part of yesterday? Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday? Participants’ responses to these questions made up the positive emotion variable, called ‘positive affect’.
 
To what extent did you experience worry, sadness and anger yesterday? Participants’ responses to these questions made up the negative emotions variable, called the ‘negative affect’.
 
In India, the effect of positive emotions has been reducing since 2015, while the effect of negative emotions has been increasing as compared with the previous three years (2012-2014), the World Happiness Report shows. This means that Indians perceive fewer reasons to smile and more reasons to worry and feel angry.
 
Research suggests that negative circumstances could have a stronger effect on our emotions, Jha said, adding, “Essentially, negative circumstances take precedence in our attention especially when there are no other factors that can alleviate their negative effects.”
 
 
Source: World Happiness Report 2018
 
Social scientists believe the current political climate can partly explain the current mood of gloom in the country.
 
“In the current political climate, prominent identity qualifiers such as caste, religion and gender are being stoked for short-term gains,” Swaminathan said, “The ensuing negative emotions of distrust, hate, prejudices and so on against the ‘other’ are not conducive to a state of happiness.”
 
At the same time, fewer Indians reported having someone to count on to help tide over troubled times in 2017, the World Happiness Report noted.
 
“It is known that relationships both in the family and broader environment affect happiness,” Jha said.
 
Greater confidence in government, yet perception of greater corruption
 
Indian citizens surveyed in 2017 for this year’s happiness report expressed greater confidence in the national government than in the previous few years. Trust in the government is a measure of social capital, or the quantity and quality of social relations in a community, to cite the first World Happiness Report, which also concluded that trust adds to life satisfaction.
 
But Indians also reported perceiving greater corruption in government and business, which seems to take away from their happiness gains.
 
Sweeping measures such as demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax made people think this government was capable of taking bold steps to improve the economy, Swaminathan said. People thought corruption would reduce, at least in the ordinary transactions involving the common person. However, with new scams unfolding, that perception has changed.
 
Confidence in this government is still high, Swaminathan said, because this government has a sophisticated marketing machinery and an active public relations network that gives the impression of a system that is responsive to citizens.
 
Why India must measure its people’s happiness
 
Happiness is a subjective feeling. However, that is not to say that it is immeasurable or that the government should brush it aside as irrelevant to public policy. Happiness is, after all, everyone’s life goal.
 
“Some Indian states are already starting happiness surveys, but national coordination would be invaluable,” John F. Helliwell, co-editor of World Happiness Report 2018, told IndiaSpend.
 
In 2017, the Madhya Pradesh state government declared it would gauge the happiness quotient of its people, the maiden such initiative by an Indian state. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said feedback from the happiness survey would be “factored into our government policies and public expenditure priorities”.
 
“You should petition your statistical agency to start measuring satisfaction with life in surveys large enough to show how life is going in different states, and for people in different life circumstances,” said Helliwell, who is professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and senior fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. “Then you and we could see more clearly why the Indian ranking as a whole has fallen relative to others in recent years,” he said.
 
(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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