In this tiny, land-locked country tucked away in the Himalayas, the happiness of its people, their contentment in daily life and solace in spirituality is a measure of the index of its economic development and good governance.
More than three decades after Bhutan’s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, coined the term, Gross National Happiness (GNH) index and argued for it to be the true measurement of Bhutan’s citizens’ levels of contentment rather than the conventional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the developed world — France, Britain, and China in particular — is waking up to the realisation that material gains need not necessarily mean happiness.
Another spriritual experience
For Phuntsho Om and Tara Devi, nursing tutors at the Government-owned Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Science, Thimphu, their six-weeks’ course in palliative care with Pallium India in Thiruvananthapuram has been another spiritual experience — one they think will fit in well with their nation’s goal of equitable socio-economic development, environmental conservation, cultural preservation, physical and spiritual well-being of its citizens — the pillars of GNH.
“Our King says that the rich are not always happy; but the happy ones can be rich. The government believes that along with cultural integration and contentment in daily life, good health and physical wellness are very important to one’s happiness. Till we came here, we believed palliative care to be just terminal care. But now we know that there is nothing more ennobling than adding life to the days of the chronically ill, giving them and the family all psycho-social, spiritual support till the very end and even beyond,” they say.
Their stint at Pallium India was their first exposure to what palliative care entailed. “We were so touched and inspired by the work done here. The home visits with the palliative care team made us realise that there must be so many chronically ill people in our community too, about whom we have never known,” say Phuntsho and Tara.
“We will make a presentation before our hospital and the Health Ministry and get our doctors too to come here for training in palliative care so that we can set up a team. We want to begin small and take it forward, take it up to policy level and into our health system,” says Tara.
