Y

oung couples with small families in Jakarta '€” couples of high income and good education '€” are the happiest in Java, despite living in the world'€™s most congested and least safe city. This is a liberal conclusion drawn from three separate surveys '€” the recently released 2014 Happiness Index of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), a global survey by the British lubricant producer Castrol and the Safe Cities Index 2015 of the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The capital is second to Yogyakarta, supposedly the happiest city in Java according to the BPS, and which many would testify is certainly much less congested and safer than Jakarta.

Singles were the least happy in Jakarta, in contrast to the national result. The happiness index tends to decrease as the number of children increases, says the BPS; Jakartans with two children appeared the happiest. This is no surprise to parents here '€” often actually the mom and the maids, who go through the agonizing daily morning ritual of waking up three children and preparing them for school.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama has suggested that schools start earlier to avoid congestion, but students groaned, citing long hours at school, plus homework and extra lessons. The governor is undoubtedly not surprised, as he continues the efforts of his predecessors in decreasing the congestion or macet.

Indian cities were not included in the traffic survey, but this will be no consolation to residents and people commuting to the capital and spending up to five hours daily on the road.

As for safety, even those who are not victims of robbery '€” reaching over 900 incidents last year, according to the City Police '€” do not feel very safe crossing the roads, driving or merely walking on narrow pavements with a pothole or two.

So with such a daily stressful environment, how can people be happy here?

The big village that is Jakarta is teeming with many nationalities and ethnicities, still with many in slums despite the growth of high-end malls and apartment buildings.

The BPS Happiness Index has just started, apparently following in the footsteps of Bhutan, an Asian neighbor whose king assigned advisors to come up with a way to better measure a people'€™s degree of contentedness than GDP. This means there are no surveys from several years ago to compare today with; it was only in 2013 that the first nationwide index was released. It is not yet clear, for example, why Jakartans over 65 years old are said to be happier than younger ones, especially those aged 17 to 24, despite the city being far from friendly to the elderly.

But such findings nevertheless could boost the efforts of the city administration to do more for its residents, who might just be happier these past few years with city leaders who seem to care more.

Especially with the recent big pay hike for city officials, including subdistrict heads, Jakartans deserve to expect more happiness in the years to come.