CPHD – Citizens Programme for Human Development was founded, embedding itself in the field of spiritual economics. Hence it would use Gross National Happiness (GNH) as an indicator for the measurement of quality of life and economic welfare.
Gross national Happiness (GNH) measures the quality of a country in a holistic way. It believes that the development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development compliments each other.
The concept of national happiness being supremely important has a long history in Bhutan, at least back to the legal code of 1729, which says "if the government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the government to exist." Gross National Happiness, phrased such, is much newer, dating to the early 1970s and statements by the Fourth King of Bhutan. As Bhutan's prime minister puts it, GNH attempts to get at a deeper level of happiness than "the fleeting, pleasurable 'feel good' moods so often associated with the term."
There are mainly four pillars of GNH and those are:
• Promotion of sustainable development
• Preservation and promotion of cultural values
• Conservation of natural environment
• The establishment of good governance
GNH believes in real happiness where the Prime minister of Bhutan said, “ Happiness it is a holistic development paradigm to make human society resilient. It motivates the individual and the society to balance material wants with spiritual growth where in needs of the body and those of the mind are addressed in equal measure within a stable and sustainable environment.”
The principal pillars of CPHD are tranquility that promotes the sense of humanism. CPHD will now cover the key elemental aspects of social welfare with the ultimate objective to create an enlightened, peaceful and prosperous society through the indicator called Gross National Happiness (GNH).
