A meeting of the State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Friday sanctioned creation of a Happiness Department. The Department will function as a knowledge resource centre on the subject of happiness. Simultaneously with Happiness Department, a State Happiness Institute will also be created.
This is a one of its kind initiative in the country. Before this decision, the State Government had undertaken an in-depth study of the measures taken to assess the status of happiness among the citizens by the United Nations as well as the Government of Bhutan and America's International Management Institute.
The new Happiness Department will map and define the features of happiness and efficiency. It would chalk out directives/guidelines for coordination among the departments in the direction of disseminating happiness in the State. The department will also work towards implementation of the concept of happiness, policy making and bringing implementation process in the mainstream. It would also prescribe an action plan and activities for experiencing happiness. The department will also assess the mindset of the State's people from time to time. It would compile and publish survey reports pertaining to the status of happiness. It would undertake constant researches regarding means of happiness expansion and improve the norms to assess them.
The set-up of the department includes one president, one chief officer, one each director-research, director-coordination and accounts officer, 4 posts of research assistant, 6 junior assistant and 5 posts of peon. Its total expenditure is estimated to be Rs 3.60 crore.
The Cabinet also sanctioned to give Simhastha Jyoti Medal (Disk) to officers and employees deployed for security arrangements during Ujjain Simhastha Mahakumbh-2016.
later, talking to media persons, Chouhan said the State Government was thinking about forming an 'Anand' Department for several days.
"Usually, a State's prosperity is measured by the economic growth, but that alone can't be a factor to measure people's satisfaction," Chouhan told media.
"So, the Madhya Pradesh Government has decided to set up 'Anand' Department which will be used as a platform initially. Food, clothing, housing, education and health are the basic needs of humans, but there are other needs also which include, positive outlook towards life, level of satisfaction and support of society during times of crisis," he added.
It is reported that the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has initially allocated a sum of Rs 3.8 cr for setting up Anand Vibhag that will carry out regular research and experiments.
With this move, Madhya Pradesh has become the first State in the country to announce such a department, which will coordinate, among other departments, and craft polices in a way to increase the level of happiness among its citizens.