Emphasis on Family Vitality in GNH: A Study in Bangladesh Perspective

The article critically analyses how family value in Bangladesh is ignored for keeping its sole focus on gaining economic growth and reveals the relevance of the Bhutanese philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) that suggests keeping a balance between development and value. In so doing, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies have been applied to collect the relevant data. A survey on twenty-five scholarly participants-teachers from universities and colleges, PhD and Mphil researchers, lawyers– has been conducted with structured questionnaires substantiated by qualitative interview of seven Social Science faculty members – five from Dhaka University and two from two different private Universities of Bangladesh-with semi-structured questionnaires. Moreover, a robust content analysis of the relevant secondary data i.e., books, articles, newspaper reports, have also been analyzed carefully to ensure the reliability and validity of the collected data. This study argues that Bhutan has been a glaring example of how both spiritual and material advancement can be ensured simultaneously that starts flourishing from a harmonious family relationship. And the study findings can be beneficial for the concerned policy makers of Bangladesh to adopt more effective and time-worthy policies to protect the country’s declined social values in line with economic growth taking insights from Bhutan’s GNH in different degrees.


Introduction
Bangladesh, in recent years, has achieved advancement quite remarkably in different sectors and especially in economic fields. Moreover, the pace of economic growth amplified significantly when the country initiated a market-oriented economy (Ahmed, 2017, p.49) in the 1990s. The country's poverty rate and absolute poverty rate came down to 21.8 and 11.3 percent respectively (The Financial Express, 2019). This is, however, only one side of the coin of economic growth. In the midst of capitalist modernity, people seem to have turned their life into a machine where human beings, according to Marx, (1984, p.341) are used as mere parts of that machine. Material interest is now the base of developing any relationship. As such, social value is getting declined; family bondage is getting weaker and the alarming increase in the divorce rate in recent times is the immediate consequence of the disintegration of family values (Ahmed, 2017, p.50).
Western-based modernity is causing an adverse effect on our traditional values and we are going to develop a generation in whom individual contentment is the sole goal of their lives. Against the backdrop, we argue to look at the policies Bhutan has adopted to keep the pace of economic growth and preservation of indigenous values, especially family vitality, with parallel emphasis through its development philosophy of GNH. And this paper suggests policy-makers to include family harmony as a vital indicator in the state's development policy taking examples from GNH.

The rationale of the Research and Research Objectives
Family vitality is an inevitable part of community vitality. In GNH philosophy, family life is considered as of the most significant aspects to ensure the well-being of people.
According to Aristotle, the ultimate goal of human life is happiness and human beings make a relentless journey to gain the desired happiness (Kesebir & Diener, 2008,p. 69). Family life promotes humanity among human beings and people learn the lessons of love, pity, sympathy, affection, and all the other humanitarian qualities like these from a harmonious filial atmosphere as Francis Bacon says: "Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity" (Lall 1973, p.74) Referring Gramsci who put emphasis family value highly, Michael Edwards (2004, p.49)

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Development in economic capability is, no doubt, vital (Dreze&Sen, 2013, p.18) to meet the various needs of life. But the development of values and ethical practices are equally important (Tideman, 2011, p.141). Aristotle also opposes the search for infinite wealth (Karim, 2015, p.49). GNH puts utmost emphasis on this fundamental institution of human life. Research on GNH and its relevance on our social background, especially on strengthening family integration and its positive impact on every aspect of our life including the economic arena are absolutely relevant in the present context of Bangladesh. The study thus sheds light on the following objectives: 1. To understand GNH from human development perspective; 2. To analyze the effectiveness of GNH philosophy of family vitality in people's lives; 3. To demonstrate the present state of family disintegration in Bangladesh; and 4. To show the arguments for the relevancy of looking at the GNH policies of family vitality and practice them in Bangladesh to strengthen family value.

Literature Review
Reza & Molla (2019), in their research paper namely "BhutanerShamoshticJatioShukh: KalpakathaNakiVastabata"? have focused on the concept of happiness that Bhutan tries to ensure through its philosophy of GNH and analyzed the implication of GNH in uplifting the standard of living of people. The study shows that GNH is not an imagination but a reality that promotes people to advance economically and preserve their core values simultaneously. The continuous reduction of the poverty level bears testimony to GNH's effectiveness in Bhutan. The study, therefore, goes on arguing strongly to follow the principle like GNH in Bangladesh and emphasizes developing moral education of people and preserving social values. However, the issue of family value has remained almost untouched in the study whereas the family is first institution of providing moral education to children and as an institution, Tocqueville (1945) even considers the family as part of civil society (Edwards 2004,p.20). Matin & Rahman (2018), in their research paper namely "Happiness in Readymade Garments Industry in Bangladesh: A Need Analysis" have focused on the state of life satisfaction of the workers of readymade garments in Bangladesh. The study tools were designed in the light of four pillars and nine domains of GNH and findings derived from the study provided a very poor picture of happiness of these  33 | bjrd working people. The studied workers have exposed their dissatisfaction in terms of observing their traditional festivals, norms and values and are alienated from relationship and interaction within communities, family and friends. The study is however, conducted on a particular class of people and sheds light on various hardships that people belonging to this category suffer in their daily life. As such, the issue of family declination and the relevance of GNH policy of family vitality to strengthen family bondage along with economic prosperity is not touched in an expected scale.
R. Verma (2017), in her research paper namely "Gross National Happiness: Meaning, Measure and Degrowth in a Living Development Alternative" has considered GNH as a holistic development alternative that is not only congruent with degrowth, but a living example of it and with societal happiness as the primary lens for viewing human progress within planetary limits. GNH places socio-cultural, political-economic and spiritual-ecological wellbeing at the centre of national development. This paper, however, focuses mainly on challenges that GNH face in terms of globalization, geopolitics, and so on and suggests following the GNH philosophy to face the crisis in the modern era, especially ecological aspects. The discussion of how GNH policy of strengthening family integration should be evaluated as a development indicator is absent in this paper.
In their writings namely, "GNH -Community Vitality: Study of Growing Vegetables in Tabjee Village, DarlaGeog, Chuka, Dzongkhag, Bhutan", K.T. Tshewang et.al (2013) have shown how the collective efforts like vegetable farming in Tabjee (a village in Bhutan) locality contributes in enhancing community vitality.The study shows that a harmonious relationship among community people that develops mainly from strong family relationships helps people to develop both intra and inter relationship, trust among the neighbors and the sense of belongings and this strong bondage promotes to raise their income level to improve their living standard. This study has surely been an encouraging one which indicates the importance of strengthening family bondage. But the study is conducted on the ground of Bhutanese atmosphere and the situation in Bangladesh is different to a large extent. More study is, therefore, needed on how Bangladesh can be benefitted taking lessons from Bhutan's GNH in strengthening filial tiesthe base of every development initiatives.

Concept of GNH and its Origin
The term "Gross National Happiness" though 'was first coined by the 4 th king of Bhutan J.S. Wangchuck, the concept has a much longer resonance in the Kingdom of Bhutan' (Ura et.al. 2012, p.6). As per Mancall (2004), the root of GNH is inherent in the Buddhist philosophy of happiness that heartens people to enlighten inner self to overcome worldly miseries (Duncan, 2010, p.169). The obligation of the government to ensure happiness for every people is also mentioned in legal code of 1729 -the short constitution of Bhutan. In general, GNH is claimed to be coined by the king in the 1970s (Ibid); that became familiar on a large scale in the later decades. Specifically, in 1986, when the king's philosophy 'GNH is more important than GDP' was captured in an interview in The Financial Times of London (GNH Survey Report, 2015).After that all sorts of development initiatives in Bhutan have predominantly been focused based on the philosophy of GNH (Ura et.al.2012, p.6). In 1999, the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) was established and became the key promoter of GNH in academic discourse (Munro, 2016, p.79). Constitutionally GNH becomes the fundamental state policy in Bhutan. There is however, no official definition on GNH but it usually signifies as development with value (Ura&Penjore, 2017). The definition as follows is widely used to manifest GNH:"Gross National Happiness (GNH) measures the quality of a country in more holistic way [than GDP]and believes that the beneficial development of human society takes place when material land spiritual development occurs side by side to complement and reinforce each other" (Ura, et.al.2012,p.7). In short, GNH refers to form a society that works collectively to achieve happiness (Ura, 2009) and aims at making balance between material prosperity and spiritual development.  (Ura, et.al.2012, pp.7-8). Each of the nine domains and their 33 indicators of GNH are interdependent and possess strong linkage and connectivity with each other and among themselves.

Pillars, domains and indicators of GNH
Community vitality is one of the most innovative domains of GNH (Ibid, p. 8) which keeps focus on how to strengthen the integration among people living in the society. The centre of attention here is to observe the state of bondage among family members; level of interaction among neighbors and practice of voluntary activities among them (GNH Survey Report, 2015). Community vitality refers to a state of bondage among people of a particular community where each one of them stands beside each other in a harmonious relationship (Ura, et.al.2012, p.28). There are four indicator of community vitality where family bondage is the most dynamic driving force (Kuensel,2018) and the rest three indicators are social support, community bondage, and perceived safety (Ura, et.al.2012,pp.28-30). A harmonious family relationship is the root of developing social capital (Fukuyama, 2000, p.99) that encourages people to act altruistically with each other for their common interests in different ways that has been beneficial for the society at large. GNH society emphasizes profoundly on this very vital aspect of human life and adopts state policies keeping the importance of strengthening family values in mind. The policy makers keep a keen eyes on whether the exertion of economic progress poses any threat on family bonding as it does in western countries. D. Penjore (2018), the chief researcher of CBS, said that the modernization resulted in the declination of community development and Bhutan is also a victim of the illusive touch of capitalist modernization (Kuensel, 2018). And thus GNH Index -a measurement system of people's wellbeingis introduced that makes survey in every five year on the performance of each of the indicators of nine domains (Ura et.al.2012,p.1) where family vitality is put emphasis to justify whether the policies of economic advancement causes any negative effect on family harmony and at large on community connectivity.

Research Methodology
The study is quite comparative in nature for which both qualitative and quantitative methodologies have been applied to collect the relevant data. To make the study an empirical one both primary and secondary data have been collected. As far as primary data is concerned, the study has been conducted taking interview of seven Social Science faculty members -five from Dhaka University and two from two different private Universities of Bangladesh with semi-structured questionnaires. One of the authors of the study is also a senior Social Science faculty member of Dhaka University which facilitates the research team in selecting the scholars who possess vast knowledge on Bhutan affairs as well as on the issue of social values in Bangladesh.
Their views, we firmly believe, are highly reliable and can surely add vales to the study.
One among them has also visited Bhutan and possesses practical knowledge on the socio-cultural aspects on Bhutan. The study has kept utmost care in maintaining the ethical issues. The participants were reluctant to identify their names and for that the Alpha-Numeric Code number has been applied in terms of analyzing their views. In this case, the Faculty Members of Social Science at the University of Dhaka have been coded as FMSC1, FMSC2, FMSC3, FMSC4, FMSC5, and Faculty Members of Private Universities are coded as FMPU1, and FMPU2. Moreover, a relatively short but empirical survey with structured questionnaires has been arranged where the number of researchers is twenty five but they are well concerned with the very issue of the paper. Having said that the concept of GNH is still quite an unfamiliar concept even to the educated people in Bangladesh, the researchers have decided to look more on quality than quantity in selecting the participants who have satisfactory knowledge on GNH and thus university teachers, Mphil and PhD researchers, college teachers having social science background have been purposively prioritized as the participants in the survey. The questionnaires have been sent to the participants by mail with clear instructions on how to answer the selected questions and by the same way, they have sent their responses through mail.
As a survey method, it is a very effective tool in research work in terms of time, cost, and respondents get convenient time and space to answer the asked questions and it has less chance of bias for the respondents (Islam, 2015,pp.205-206). Here, Table-1 shows the type of scholarly respondents we have selected for the survey. "The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation"( 1970,p.38)

Consequence of Family Disintegration in People's lives
The state of family disintegration and its immediate and farsighted results in the lives of people in Bangladesh have keenly been focused in the following deliberations. And table 2, cited below, highlights the core points of those deliberations which strengthen our point of focusing so highly in GNH philosophy of family vitality as a development indicator and its relevance in the present context of Bangladesh.   usually come back to their parents but the situation becomes more catastrophic if the parents are poor or dead and there is no system of institutional support for the divorced women and their children to provide economic assistance to them in Bangladesh (Khaleque, 2011, p.57).Divorced women are even considered as 'bad women' and many of them are publicly ridiculed and face social exclusion (Rahman et al. 2013, p.30). One of the interviewees remarked "The male dominated social structure is hardly sympathetic towards women and they have to face the agony of divorce in the most pathetic ways throughout their lives." (FMSC4). And, no doubt, loss of family bonding, works as the root cause behind all these disorders and anarchies in the society especially against women.

Children
The effects of family disharmony are more devastating in the lives of children and in most cases they become extremely aggressive and suffer from mental disorders (Furstenberg & Kiernan, 2001).

Men
Men, being the principal member in the family, in the social context of Bangladesh have the key role to maintain the family bonding. But in the pursuit of gaining name, fame, money, wealth, they tend to forget the basic components of social capital (Ahmed, 2019, p.44). Temptation towards living into a virtual world pushes them to be involved with extramarital relationships and the practice of illicit relations results to put an end of their marital relation (Potoari, 2020, p.26).Again, due to social media, mistrust is developing between husband and wife (The Independent, 2018) and many divorces are happening due to the use of Face book (Ahmed, 2017, p. 50).In his interview with the authors one of the interviewees said "Western and Indian cultures have deeply penetrated in the very mentality of modern people in Bangladesh which allure people to maximize material gain and people are gradually getting themselves detached from their own values" (FMSC5).Divorce affects badly on the life style of a man and leads him towards utmost frustration (Kalmijn&Unk, 2007). One of the interviewees said "In many cases, men are suspicious about their working wives. It weakens their bondage and leads them towards the termination of their relationship" (FMPU1).Children who live with their fathers after the divorce of their parents, in turn, increase tension and anxiety to the fathers, as they alone fail to manage them. Out of frustration and anger, many of them misbehave with their children. Moreover, if they remarry, the step mothers, in most cases, treat negatively with those children. In many cases, they become more susceptible to illness mentally (Ahmed, 2007) and unable to restore their impaired personality which affects their concentration of work (Rahman, 2018).

Old People
Old people's role has extremely been crucial in terms of maintaining family as well as

GNH Survey Reports
Two   The state of family vitality is quite outstanding. 67% of people viewed that they have shared a considerable time with their family; 87% have mentioned the practice of good understanding in the family; 94.8% have revealed comfort in company with the families; and 96.2% reported the caring mentality of the family members (Ibid).People's eagerness towards showing love and respect to their families and communities have also been found in almost the same dimension in the other studies conducted by scholars outside from Bhutan (Monaco,2016, Mancall,2004,Munro,2016.

Short Survey Outcome
Researchers have done a short survey besides some qualitative focused descriptionoriented observation in Bangladesh to comprehend the meaningful outcome of the

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The survey was conducted on structured questionnaire and the survey results are explained in the below. Outcome of the survey is that 81%9 participants are in favor of putting emphasis on GNH philosophy of family value in Bangladesh and 72%7 respondents expressed their views regarding the alarming divorce rates of the couples in Bangladesh in the recent times. Moreover, 54%5 respondents expressed their views to make a balance between GDP and GNH. The survey outcomes from the absolutely learned participants of the country, therefore, reveal the relevance of including GNH philosophy of family vitality as development indicator to restrain Bangladesh from serious family disharmony.

Discussion
The analysis of the interviewees and survey findings provide some significant insights on the Bhutanese love towards social integration and the society at large enjoys the benefits of that social capital that starts from a harmonious family connectivity. In Merely money cannot ensure happiness in human life. We have already had a narcissistic generation. It has been felt more when the capitalist products of selfcentered children are leaving their old parents on the street during the corona epidemic to save themselves. The number of 'young gang' has become an alarming issue for the country and the root cause of which is the declination of family bondage. This individualistic character reminds us Shakespeare's creation of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice who represents the modern materialistic society where money is even more important than children. As Shylock states: "I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewel in her ear; would she were hearsed at foot and the ducats in her coffin" (Shakespeare, 2018,p. 144).
The preceding analysis clearly reveals that focus on family bonding with highest attention is an inalienable demand at the present context of Bangladesh and money thus appears to be useless if we fail to strengthen our family tie and in so doing, we need to look at our home first .And here lies the significance of studying the principle of family vitality of GNH in Bangladesh.

Conclusion
In summing up, respect and ignorance towards practicing social values respectively in Bhutan and Bangladesh has almost clearly been reflected in the preceding analysis.
The two countries -Bangladesh and Bhutanno doubt, differ remarkably in diverse extents as Bhutanese society is influenced by Buddhist beliefs, Bangladesh is a Muslim dominated country followed by Hinduism. However, Islam is firmly considered as religion of peace, harmony, rapprochement and so are Hinduism. The basic point is how people practice their values with love and respect.
And finally, whatever the variations are, the basic goal of every state is the same and that is to boost up the spirit of peace and happiness for every individual which can never be achieved ignoring family values. As a densely populated country, the task is, no doubt, more challenging for Bangladesh to keep balance between the pace of economy and persisting values but this more challenge necessitates more focus on family value because economic progress goes in vain if we fail to ensure contentment in human life. This is what we have so far tried to argue, and this is why the variables of family vitality in GNH are so relevant at present in Bangladesh. We must keep in mind that peace at home pales the peace of heaven (Khair, 2008, p.39) and we can enjoy that heavenly pleasure looking at how GNH advocates making a balance between development and values. A moral revolution is, therefore, needed 'with a vision of plain living and simple thinking imparting to the posterity through our