Thimphu, Oct 31 (IANS) Bhutan is again gearing up to find out about the state of its people’s happiness through a survey, for which an exhaustive questionnaire is now being prepared.
The exercise to refine the questionnaire for Gross National Happiness (GNH) survey was as abstract as the subject itself, reported kuenselonline.com.
The second GNH survey questionnaire has been prepared by the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS).
It runs into a staggering 43 pages, with 249 questions under nine domains and 124 variables, including 10 demographic questions.
A meeting was held here to go through the questions in relevance to the GNH policy.
“We take notes of the recommendations and suggestions to discuss further on whether to incorporate them or not,” an official was quoted as saying.
“Such stocktaking of suggestions and recommendations would help improve our questionnaires and GNH survey system.”
On psychological wellbeing, some participants pointed out the need to include children and family support system-related questions.
On spirituality, Girijesh Pant of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said it was more of a religious sort and did not cover the whole section of a society.
“It ignores an atheist,” he said. “One can be spiritual even without praying, and an atheist can also be spiritual.”
Some of the questions under spirituality include “How often do you recite prayers and how often do you visit temples?”
