Activity 2: Wellbeing in the city of Mumbai
In this activity you will:
- examine wellbeing in India with a particular focus on the city of Mumbai
- use a number of indicators such as wealth, health and happiness.
Key inquiry question: How can we use wellbeing indicators to measure wellbeing in Mumbai, India?
Wellbeing indicators
- Discuss as a class what factors contribute to communities and countries having a high level of wellbeing. Record these and display them in the classroom.
-
Read the information below about measuring wellbeing in India and use this, and the factors you have listed, to discuss whether the levels of wellbeing would be uniform across India.
Measuring wellbeing in India
The Republic of India is situated in South Asia. It is the world's largest democracy and has the second largest population of over 1.2 billion people. The Indian Ocean is located to the south, the Arabian Sea to the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal to the south-east. India shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal and Bhutan to the north-east, and Burma and Bangladesh to the east.
The Indian economy is the world's tenth largest by nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and it is considered a newly industrialised country with one of the largest middle classes in the world. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, inadequate public health care and other issues that face developing nations.
In the 2010 Gallup Poll, India was ranked 71 in the world wellbeing survey. Read more about their ranking in the Economic Times.
Another survey group, Ipsos, conducted a Ipsos: Who's Happy Now? in 24 countries around the world. India ranked second with Indonesia being the happiest nation. An interesting survey finding was that respondents did not feel that wealth automatically brought happiness. Read more about the findings and look at the graph comparing happiness with each country's GDP at Chilled out on The Economist website.
- Find the city of Mumbai on the map of India. Write down what you know about this city. Did you know, for example, that it has a thriving stock exchange and a film industry, Bollywood, that is larger than Hollywood?
- Read the information and view the images about Mumbai, the 'fourth-best city in India' (on the right). Think about the wellbeing level in this city and why it is considered to be the fourth best city to live in. Is this the case for all residents?
- Not all of Mumbai's communities are wealthy. Read more about the Dharavi slum area of Mumbai.
- Using this value statement: 'Happiness equates to high levels of wellbeing', create a media presentation to prove or disprove this statement using Mumbai and a city in Australia as examples. You will need to create a storyboard highlighting your key ideas and how you will represent each element visually. Some of your information is available in the resource Measuring wellbeing in India but you will also need to conduct additional research using the internet.
- Once completed share your presentations with the rest of the class.
- Conclude the activity by deciding as a class whether the presentations proved or disproved the statement and discuss the reasons for your decision.