Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced that the state will soon have a ministry for happiness to measure its progress.
CM said that the idea came from Bhutan’s gross national happiness (GNH) index. In this, there are four pillars that will lead to a healthy index – good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation.
"Happiness will not come into the lives of people merely with materialistic possessions or development but by infusing positivity in their lives so that they don't take extreme steps like suicide in distress," Chouhan said yesterday at the state BJP's Executive meeting.
"Madhya Pradesh will be the first state in the country to create Department of Happiness and I got this inspiration from Bhutan which gave the world the concept of Happiness Index way back in 1970s," the Chief Minister said.
The purpose behind setting up this Department is to ensure happiness in the lives of people and stop people from taking extreme steps like suicide when they are in distress, he said.
It will organise yoga, meditation and cultural programmes among others to keep people happy, he added.
He informed the proposal to constitute the Department of Happiness will be passed in the next Cabinet meeting.
Chouhan said that the proposed Department will take all possible measures to ensure that people remain happy in their lives as worldly possessions and development based on "statistical figures is not the only measure of happiness".
