Three pillars of holistic development — Part 3
Quality of Life
Quality of Life is another very critical aspect of holistic development. What is development if it is not accessible to each and every individual? What is development if it does not improves the standard of living? Quality of life includes various aspects in itself such as education, health, mobility, sanitation, housing, safety etc. And each of these aspects can further be expressed in more detailed terms. For example, by education, we can relate to accessibility of education amongst the marginalised communities and further to the quality of the education that is available. Similarly in the case of health. Mobility means the ability to commute, so do we have the facility of hassle-free transportation that is accessible, comfortable as well as environmentally sustainable? Do we have proper infrastructure for drainage and sanitation? Can we wander freely without worrying about our safety and security?
WHO defines Quality of Life as an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It is a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by the person’s physical health, psychological state, personal beliefs, social relationships and their relationship to salient features of their environment.
Quality of life is something that is generally seen as a bi-product of economic development. It is often assumed that the quality of life will automatically improve along with the growth of economy. We cannot say that economic development has no contribution in raising the standard of living. It does acts as a catalyst in boosting the process of enhancing the quality of life. It creates means to develop as well as provide access to better facilities and simultaneously makes people capable of affording these facilities. But the question that arises here is, should we be completely dependent on the economic development for it to automatically improve the quality of life along with the growth of economy? The answer to this question can easily be deciphered from a simple historical analysis of the huge disparity between economic development and the level of accessibility with respect to the basic needs and amenities, especially for the people who belong to the bottom of the pyramid. It is pretty evident that economy is not the sole factor responsible for quality of life. Thus, we should be sensible enough to comprehend that we cannot rely only on economic development to improve the quality of life. It needs to be addressed as a completely separate problem.
