Elderly happiness in India

Raman Mishra, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Happiness is defined as the degree to which a person enjoys his or her life-as-a-whole. Accordingly ‘Gross National Happiness’ is defined as the degree to which citizens in a country enjoy the life they live. It is argued that Happy Life Years (HLY) is the best available indicator of Gross National Happiness. The study first constructs measures of HLY by considering large nationally representative survey data on general happiness (SAGE, 2007) and population life table estimates of mortality and employing the period prevalence-rate life table method—Sullivan method. It then examines changes in HLY by age and sex. It was found that happy life years is long among females in comparison to males while the proportion of life lived happily is more among males. Happiness is highly associated with education, income, activity of daily living and quality of life. With increasing education and income, happiness increases significantly among elderly.