New Zealand Govt Gives Prominence to Mental Health Over Material Wealth
New Zealand has unveiled the
first of its kind budget that aims to make people happy rather than rich. It
promises to spend more money on tackling suicides, child poverty and mental
health problems. The allocation for mental health problems is NZ$ 2 Bn.
The nation has the highest teen
and young adult suicide rate in Western countries. An allocation of NZ$200 mn
will be used for providing shelter and NZ$1 bn to fight child poverty. The
initiative by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is to take the emphasis away from
GDP as a measure of country's progress to quality of life enjoyed by the
citizens.
New Zealand becomes the second
nation to give importance to happiness over wealth. The Kingdom of Bhutan has
been doint it since 1970's and they started publishing 'gross national
happiness index' since 2008.
(Photo Source: Sky Tower, Auckland by Darshan Sreekumar)
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