What is wellbeing (in regards to countries are the people) and why is it used? What does it show us?

There are many factors that have influenced India's wellbeing. To find out, we can look at the challenges that have faced and are still facing as well as the responses to these challenges. The best way to look at this is to select one major city, instead of looking at India as a whole, as different areas have different levels of wellbeing, due to its challenges and responses.

Lets pick Delhi as the case study

Delhi is a mega city, which means that it has a population of over 10 million people, or to be more exact at the moment it is nearly 20 million. This high population will create many challenges that exist for the people who live there such as lack of jobs and housing, as there are not enough jobs and housing to meet the demand. This has lead many people to work in the informal sector of the economy, which is the unregulated part of the economy where the government does not influence it, so there is no minimum wage, proper working condition, etc. This means that people are frequently making little to nothing each day for hard work.

If we look at the housing of people who live in Delhi, there are hundreds of slums located across Delhi, which usually are also squatter settlements, which is defined as "a squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people." These slums show the issue of lack of housing in Delhi, and even across India, as there are estimated to be over 64 million people living in slums across India. In these slums, there can be up to 20 or more people living in an area the size of a small room, and these slums do not have access to clean water and food nor power.

These factors show the low levels of wellbeing in Delhi, and can also be applied to many areas across India.

To combat housing issues, many responses have been implemented to reduce the issue of housing and jobs, where the government has tried to construct high density housing (apartments or anything that can fit many people into a small area) in order to fit more people into a smaller space. The government has also tried to upgrade existing area's to cater for more people or assist informal settlements to combat the lack of wellbeing.

A simple search on the internet can reveal to you many challenges and responses India has faced, which can be used to evaluate the wellbeing in the country.