STUDENTS' CORNER - 37

During discussion on GDP as an indicator of standard of living and quality of life, we dealt with housing as a factor bringing out the standard of living and the quality of life as lived by people.

For this session, we will take up Productive or Main activity to study the relationship between GDP and the Main Activity.

Before we proceed with this discussion, we have to bear in mind that all the factors that we study and discuss are inter-related and they are grouped or categorized for the sake of our convenience to study and examine.

Quality of life actually is such a vast and growing subject that innumerable articles and books keep appearing.  For the present context, we shall briefly list out factors that are always taken into consideration while assessing the quality of life.

Quality of life refers to well-being of individuals and societies which are made up of individuals. The state of well-being is so complex that anything that impacts man in his daily living legitimately is brought under the quality of life, that is, well-being. Basically, all the factors that come under the concept of well-being can be classified in two ways, broadly: how does one feel and how does one interact with the people, the things and the ideas. And to make it still simpler, it is fundamentally the feelings of the individual that matter since they impel and influence all his relationships with people, property and his perceptions.

And when feelings occupy the top position in the daily living of individuals, it is a matter of common knowledge that all individuals seek happiness and happiness in turn is derived from the sense of security and safety.  In other words, how far an individual feels secure in his life, that is, in his relationship with the world around; the world is, simply, his family, his job and the all important his health which makes him feel happy in his family life as well as in his workplace.  Probing a little deeper, his comfort which gives him happiness depends on most significant things like the job he has, the money he is able to earn and the kind of relationship he has built up both in and outside home.

Inside home, how much of understanding is there between him and his intimate relatives like wife, son and daughter so on; is he happy at home which means he has attained a decent balance between his work outside and peaceful environment inside home.

Outside home, does he get along with the society well without friction and conflict? Does society respect him in the way that when he is in distress, he finds people rushing to him to help.

If all these facts are favorable to him, he can be said to lead a comparatively quality-life.

We will take up Health to discuss as an indicator of quality of life in our next session.

In a way, higher GDP denotes better economy which implies that an individual gets normally what basically he requires: a roof above his head to protect him from rain and shine, a family to lean onto in times of distress, enough provisions of food and attires.

The higher the GDP, possibly the better will all the requirements be.  This is a popular notion about GDP which, of course, has not been accepted by all the analysts.