What makes people of country happy? Is it economy? Is it environment? Is it education? Is it government policies? Well all of these do contribute to people’s happiness in a country. But, it is not necessary to be higher economic pace and growth always. People are happier when they don’t experience inequality in distribution of wealth; people don’t mind paying taxes when there is fairness in tax structure. People are happy when government practices transparency in the implementing policies. People want safety, people want welfare, people want good infrastructure, hygiene and people want good quality education.

Corruption undermines government revenue and, therefore, limits the capacity of the government to invest in productive areas.  Corruption distorts the decision-making in public investment projects. It’s been observed the higher the level of corruption in a country, the larger the share of its economic activity that will go subversive, beyond the reach of the tax authorities. Corruption discourages entrepreneurship and innovation, it only encourages inefficiency. It dislocates the human resources.  It creates uncertainty among the citizens. And, it diminishes legitimacy in all walks of life and increases crimes.

In all countries there are rich and poor; but when the levels of inequality are low, and the welfare systems are strong, the citizens are happy. People don’t mind paying higher taxes. Look at Denmark, it ranks 158th in the world and Switzerland is even worse, at 174^th in the World & Economic Ranking standards.

The World Happiness Index Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network which contains rankings of national happiness and analysis of the data from various perspectives. The first World Happiness Report was released in April 2012. In a high level meeting of UN well-being and Happiness were defined as new economic paradigms which drew international attention.

The report primarily uses data from the Gallup World Poll. Gallup is a credible polling organization. It is respected highly in media. Nevertheless, all researches including polling have some weaknesses which depend on the various methodologies and details of the poll and its questionnaires. Each research has few statistical limitations. Gallup ensures that each annual report is available to the public to download on the World Happiness Report website.

Happiness index is measured using parameters like Housing, Income, Work, Community, Civic Engagement, Education, Environment, Health, Life Satisfaction, Safety and Life-Work balance etc. Each report is organized by chapters that delve deeper into issues relating to happiness. The chapters also include mental illness, the objective benefits of happiness, the importance of ethics, policy implications which lead to subjective wellbeing. The report is based on how strong a country’s social foundation and social trust is.

Bhutan is one of the Buddhist Kingdoms in the World and so far has preserved much of their culture since the 17th century. Even with globalization, Bhutan follows its Buddhist culture. It allows a certain number of foreigners into the country each year, and the two hundred dollars a day that must be paid by every traveller is a deterrent for many. Internet, television, and western dress were banned from the country up until ten years ago. But over the past ten years globalization has proved to be a challenge to this tiny nation. Things have begun to change, but they are trying to balance things in their own way.

Bhutan is the only country in the world that has a ‘GNH’ which is “Gross National Happiness.” The process of measuring GNH began when Bhutan opened up to globalization. It measures people’s quality of life, and makes sure that both material and spiritual development happen together in its citizen’s lives. Bhutan has balanced it rightly so far.

Happiness is very important to both individuals and as a country. A happy individual is productive and creative. As human beings, although we possess cognitive abilities and are highly “thought” oriented, the quality of our lives is determined by our emotions. A happy human is emotionally strong because happiness protects heart, it strengthens immune system, it helps in combating stress, it found that happy people have fewer aches and pains.

All Nordic countries are among the happiest countries on the planet, as are Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Finland is the winner in 2018 report. Finland’s 5.5 million residents enjoy more forest per square mile than any European country. They have maintained extremely high environmental standards. It’s a peaceful place on Earth. Its immigrants are also happy. The World Happiness Report made particular mention of the consistency in happiness between them and local born residents.

In 2018 World Happiness Index Report, India ranks at 133^rd place with a drop of eleven places since previous report. Pakistan is ranked 75th, while Nepal ranked at 101^st, Sri Lanka at 116th position and Bangladesh at 115^th, Bhutan at 97^th place. If you wonder which is the world’s least happy country? It is Burundi, followed by Central African Republic, South Sudan and Tanzania, due to condemnation of life in Africa.

Marathi theatre has always been regarded as one of the most culturally rich theatre traditions in the country. Right from the 18^th century the Marathi theatre has been present. It seems King Patwardhan of Sangli requested novelist Vishnu Bhave to write an evocative play for entertaining his guests and Bhave wrote ‘Sita Swayamvar’ which was performed on November 5, 1843, in that princely state. It was inspired by Karnataka’s folk theatre form of Yakshagana.

The Marathi stage has evolved in Bombay (now Mumbai) because this city has always been a business city; it had the infrastructure and money which helped the formal performers to grow. Because of the majority Maharashtrian workers community in the city who lived in the chawls the free time was used to practice dramas, keertans, pravachans and powadas. The artists used to practice in whatever space was available to them; sometimes varandahs, staircases and the open grounds. Lavanis such as “Mumbai Nagari Badi Banka, Jashi Ravanachi dusari Lanka” by Patthe Bapurao and Annabhau Sathe’s “Mazi Mumbai, Arthat Muumbai Konachi” were super duper hits those days. People flocked to the theatres to watch these lavanis.

Maharashtra has had long theatrical tradition, one of its early references is found in cave inscriptions at Nashik. Marathi theatre started flourishing in the middle of the 19th century. It includes forms like Sangeet Natak (Musical drama), Tamasha (folk dance), Ekpatri prayog etc. It continues to have a marked presence in the State of Maharashtra. Marhathi theatre is not famous outside Maharashtra; maybe because Marathi as a language is quite difficult and a lot of stress is laid on the richness of the language by the writers; the gamut of Marathi dramas ranges from humorous social plays, farces, historical plays, musical, to experimental plays and serious drama. We have seen the likes of Annabhau Kirloskar, P. L. Deshpande, Vijay Tendulkar, and Mahesh Elkunchwar, Bhalaji Pendharkar, Raja Paranjape, Annabhu Sathe, Vinda Karandikar, Arun Sadhu, P. K. Atre, Daya Pawar etc who were known and are known even today for their par excellence.  But, there is one big problem in staging a drama and continuing it for long time. We find Marathi dramas live a short life span, though some of them have great content. They are forgotten easily. Perhaps it is because Maharashtra faces multiculturalism and therefore the Marathi theatre takes a backset. Most importantly, Marathi theatre faces many political and social undercurrents. There is a sea change in terms of quality and context which are changing like never before. The conditions today cannot be compared to the previous decade.

Marathi Theatre can be described as never-ending energy; live moments, live interaction, superb dialogues, and great backdrops of stage, superb background music scores, and a strong tradition of 150 years which can never die. Besides, Marathi dramas are sharp, witty and very rich in content. They make you think even hours after you’ve watched a show. Marathi theatre is evolving with newer ideas, newer concepts and much more experiments. The new breed of directors is experimenting with forms of theatre. No other place in India has so much of ‘commercial theatre’ like that in Maharashtra. If you have three movie shows in Plaza, the theatre bang opposite to it, Shivaji Mandir, has three shows of plays on the same day.

The various genres of Marathi scripts are also a reason for people to watch plays. Comedy, serious depiction of the society, political satires, musicals, romantic, tragedy, rags to riches stories and mission – it has it all. Marathi theatre fascinates its viewers with its large variety.

The cultural connection of Mumbai and Pune with its regional theatre shows that the stage is not dying, it is experimenting and it has long way to go. It has managed to carve a special niche and that’s reason enough to say that there’s plenty of hope for the art in the state of Maharashtra.

Both cinema and drama are based on story. Both drama and cinema depend primarily on performers who resent and communicate the story to the audience. A stage play or a screenplay is like reading a novel. Dramas are livelier and thrilling as you see the actor’s performance right in front. The audience can clap and applaud the actors on the stage. The actors also in response give their best dialogue delivery, voice modulation, gestures thus bringing in more energy in the theater. Drama is on the spot. There are not takes and retakes; it delivers effect on the spot therefore it connects with the viewers more honestly. Drama is more difficult for an actor.

Both drama and cinema share certain common features; they both use sets, props, costumes, music and other sound effects. Communication is the essence in both drama and cinema. Even in the silent era, films relied heavily on human speech that was understood through contextual instinct; a combination of gesture, facial expression, and lip reading; and inserts of printed, projected text. If a drama is dull or boring viewers crate a commotion whereas if a cinema is boring they simply walk out of the theatre. Bothe cinema and drama have their fan following. Everybody cannot enjoy drama; an audience that has been raised on films, do not enjoy dramas.

Marathi theatre has come a long way. While Gujarati, Hindi or English theatre is ‘merely weekend theatre’, catering to the thinking and upper class, Marathi theatre is all about the masses mainly because of the way it gets people to relate to the script. Mumbai and Pune are hubs of Marathi plays. In Mumbai and Pune, there are these niche classes of people who usually do not miss watching a play every week. Mumbai is the economic capital and Pune is the cultural capital of Maharashtra state. There are at least 15-20 theatres in Mumbai which host only Marathi plays right from Prabhadevi to Thane: Rabindra Natya Mandir, Shivaji Natya Mandir, Ranga Sharda, Dinanath, Gadkari Rangayatan and many more theatres are witness to the love Mumbaikars have for this art form. And in Pune: Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir, Tilak Smarak Mandir, Bharat Natya Mandir, Sudarshan Hall, Moreshwar Hall, Yashwantrao Chavan Natya Mandir etc are famous for Mrathi drama lovers. Mumbai and Pune showcase the love for performing art relatively much more, compared to other cities like Bangalore or New Delhi which relatively have fewer auditoriums.

The amount of theatre that is being done on the commercial as well as parallel stage in Marathi cannot be compared to any other regional theatre today. It is facing some technical, political and financial problems today, which I am sure, will be sorted out sooner or later. The Marathi theatre scene is the most happening in the whole of India.

While the world is talking of gender equality and empowerment of women, we are ignorant about so many child marriages still taking place in many parts of the world. The young, innocent girls live a life worst than animals. They lose their autonomy even before they understand what world is all about. They become vulnerable without any mobility and zero economic power. How can the rest of the world be so apathetic to the one of the biggest threat and abuse to human right?

The arrangement of child marriage is a curse to the mankind; which often prevents the girls from getting the basic education and restricting them to follow their dreams. It can be devastating physically, psychologically, economically and socially. On one hand when we celebrate women empowerment, on the other hand we ruthlessly shrug off the factual instances of the child marriages still prevailing among some communities.

Childhood emotional mistreatment (CEM) has lasting effects. These kids when grow in adulthood; struggle emotionally and socially throughout their lives as a result of being neglected in childhood. Although there is an abundance of literature and research that focuses on the negative impact of childhood maltreatment (CM) in general, the rampant system of child marriage is discussed and argued only when instances are published in media, few people make little noise and the topic gets calmed down.

Child marriage “is an evil worse than rape” and should be completely eradicated from society, said a Delhi court while ordering registration of a case against a girl’s parents for getting her married at a tender age of 8. The Judge of the court said “Child marriage is an evil worse than rape and should be completely eradicated from the society. This will not be possible if the stakeholders like the state fail to take appropriate action against the offenders.”

Now and then young girls are married off to men much older than them. The adult men harass these timid, under grown and gullible girls sexually, physically and mentally. The helpless and devastated girls have no place to return. They are unexposed to the society, often illiterate and have absolutely no experience of life – where do they go? The parents should be pulled up for committing “serious offense”.

Child brides often die young contracting HIV and other venerable diseases, and dying while pregnant or giving birth. In India child marriage is more common among certain groups and among disadvantaged communities in almost all states. Child marriage is marriage before the age of 18, which is usually forced and occurs when the bride is 8-9 or 11-12 years old. The husband is typically several years older than his wife, sometimes decades older. In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established that marriage should be a consensual choice. But who’s listening, who is observing, and who is bothered?

Child marriage is mainly prevalent in West Africa, South Asia, North Africa/Middle East, and Latin America.  According to the International Center for Research on Women, the highest rates are in Niger, Chad and Mali where over 70 percent of young girls are married. But, it is said that girls are at risk of child marriage in India than most other countries combined.

If this curse is not ended soon, it will get worse. While we are talking about the world getting progressively bigger, people are becoming selfish; self-centered and least bothered about their surroundings.  It is estimated that today there are 60 million girls that were married as children, which will double to 100 million in the next 10 years. Millions more child brides are now adult women with families of their own, and their daughters will most likely become wives while still children.

Can you imagine in today’s ultramodern and tech savvy world virginity is a symbol of honor, both for the girl and her family? Therefore, families often marry off daughters early so that when she does start to have sex, it is with her husband. The feeble hypocrite society wants girls to become good wives and mothers; this is how a girl can gain status and honor within the family and community. And the worst is alliances between groups are formed through marriage through the exchange of dowries and bride payments, creating bonds between communities. So are we talking of girls as humans or girls as objects?

Education is the only solution to shun child marriage; but when the most basic necessity of food and shelter is not met with, many economically downtrodden find educations very expensive. Girls are considered burden, and parents think she has to go to another family why spend on her education? Often they invest in their sons instead. Another fact is girls are valued less than boys. Is marriage different than barter system? Marrying off a daughter can bring wealth to her parents in the form of a bride price paid by the husband-to-be, which often helps parents to buy goats or other livestock. We should feel ashamed of such a monstrous system still existing in our society. And, giving away a daughter in marriage means that she is now the responsibility of her husband, thus parents wash off their hands of their daughter’s responsibility. Her husband is free to use her the way he wants. In so many instances when a young wife dies, the man remarries without any delay.

As learned and responsible citizens of this world, let us take little responsibility of those small, little girls; let them not be forced to grow up when they are still kids! Let them study, let them play, let the laugh. They are like budding flowers, let them grow and use their potential for something nice and good.