Some of the backward and drought-prone districts in Andhra Pradesh have shown a higher happiness quotient. The State government has selected the level of happiness as an important indicator of good governance. Support in the form of economic activity from nearby urban conglomerations, and agricultural growth, appear to have helped these districts in arriving at a better score.
While India is ranked at 122 among 155 countries in the World Happiness Report, 2017, prepared by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN), the State government, using the same criteria and methodology, has estimated that the State is at the 74th position globally.
The State government has a full chapter on ‘happiness scores’ and their estimation in the ‘Sunrise Andhra Pradesh Vision 2029’ document. It has also been ranking the 13 districts for this in 2017 and 2018.
In 2018, the three backward districts of north Andhra, and some in the drought-prone Rayalaseema, indicated higher levels of happiness than the so-called developed coastal districts. Visakhapatnam, Chittoor, Kurnool and Srikakulam were among the top six districts. Krishna district, which ranked third in 2017, has climbed to the first rank. Visakhapatnam climbed five places from eighth to second, and Chittoor from the 12th to the third rank in 2018.
With Prakasam occupying the fourth rank, Kurnool from Rayalaseema and Srikakulam from the backward north Andhra occupied the fifth and sixth positions. For reasons still to be established, Srikakulam, which got the first rank in 2017, slid down the ladder to the sixth place.
The presence of large urban conglomerations and irrigation facilities have buoyed up the happiness quotient in Krishna, Visakhapatnam and Chittoor, according to economists. The rainfed Rayalaseema districts such as Kadapa, Anantapur and the north Andhra districts such as Vizianagaram, however, have lost their positions. Nellore fell from the fourth place to the 10th because of severe rainfall deficit of 53% this year and 64% in the previous year.
The Vision 2029 version 2.0/2019-2014 document says the level of happiness has been estimated by the ‘Ease of Living’ parameter based on 56 core indicators and 22 support indicators.
In the study conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Tirupati ranked fourth, Vijayawada ninth, Visakhapatnam 19th and Kakinada 64th among the top 111 cities in the country.
