ANALYSIS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

ABSTRACT

Conventionally, GDP or GNP is considered as a measure of well-being of a country. In spite of their simplicity and objectivity, voices are raised against these income-based measures on the ground that human well-being is primarily subjective in nature. According to human development approach, the perception of well-being covers different dimensions of well-being, viz., quality of education, healthcare quality, the standard of living and labor market, personal safety, overall satisfaction with freedom of choice and life and perceptions about community and government. This paper presents a brief overview of the concept of well-being in the context of human development approach and analyses the role of well-being indicators in determining the perception of overall human well-being for different countries, regions and at the global level on the basis of HDR 2016 published by UNDP.