Asia

By Marion Sharples

While certainly not being a one-stop fix-all solution, the progress that was made under a small-scale, temporary pilot should energise feminist advocates of basic income and serve as an inspiration for future work. The positive impact of basic income on poverty levels, women's self-respect, increased social inclusion and reduced scope for exploitation is greatly inspiring.

Multi-functional agroforestry landscapes including diversified crops, trees, and animals are keys to social-ecological resilience. If current government reforms indeed succeed in the retention of a considerable fraction of the rural workforce, subsequent scaffoldings are capable of perpetual greening of India’s rural employment sector.

Some foreign observers claim that GNH provides ideological cover for repressive and racist policies. Love it or hate it, one thing is clear, the pursuit of GNH does not appear to be helping the people of Bhutan rise to a higher standard of living.