DailyPost 224
QUALITY OF LIFE
The economic surge of the Indian middle class based on the horizontal extension of professional education simultaneous with the mass scale job opportunity provided by the IT & related industries have brought the concept of quality to the center stage our existence. Till then, it was a battle for survival but for lucky ones both self made & ancestral. Quality of life is a comprehensive concept barely understood with clarity & generally confused with standard of living in its crudest terms.
As per WHO, “the individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture & value systems in which they live & in relation to their goals .” So quality of life at the end of the day is what you perceive it to be. In reality, diverse objective & subjective indicators have been used over time, moving towards a more tangible understating of the same.
The standard of living is of primordial importance in most societies to move onto a better quality of life . Income remains as one of the main indicators, yet its capability to bring change in quality of life significantly can be questioned. Human Development Index & World Happiness Report have in their own way provided clarity but still seem to way off from a tangible generic matrix with acceptable regional & contextual differences.
The basic parameters remain; quality of education, health, employment, income on the physical / financial side & mental health in the emotional well being side taking care of stress & strain. The societal connects with depth in social relationships can complete the story. Self-actualisation can be the final purpose. Easy to say, difficult to conceptualize, document, plan, make it workable & deliver.
Might be this is final goal for humanity. A linear progression from hardship to standard of living to quality of life to well being and finally happiness may be with self-actualization.
QUALITY IN ALL YOU DO & ARE DEPENDENT ON, PROVIDES YOU QUALITY OF LIFE.
Sanjay Sahay