An Emic Towards Well-being

Usually not much attention has been paid to people’s perspective towards their own well-being. In fact it is rare to find national level studies on the realities about people’s well-being. Further more, people’s ideas about development processes usually are not considered in these studies (UNDP, 1996). But people are conscious about their own well-being and they have a transparent idea about their needs and priorities. The present study is a part of BRAC-ICDDR,B joint research project. The main objectives of the research project is to assess the effect of BRAC and ICDDR,B interventions on health status and human well-being and also to explore the pathways and causal mechanism through which these development efforts influence well-being (Chowdhury and Bhuiya, 1995). Since the impact of the development interventions on the well-being of individuals and families in rural Bangladesh is the primary concern here, it is crucial to identify the people’s idea of well-being. [Working Paper No. 20]