The European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe released the Global Hunger Index 2022 on 15th October 2022.
The report shows that India slipped to 107th from 101st position in 2021—with a score of 29.1 which was in the “serious” classification of the global hunger level.
The Global Hunger Index calculates the score by taking into consideration four indicators- undernourishment, child wasting under the age of 5, stunted growth among children under the age of 5 and child mortality.
The GHI takes up a 100-point scale to rank the countries. The higher the score, the higher will be the hunger levels of the respective countries.
According to the Global Hunger Index, a value of less than 9.9 in a country is considered “low”, 10 to 19.9 “moderate”, 20 to 34.9 is “alarming”, while above 50 is “extremely alarming.”
The Global Hunger Index published that India’s child-wasting rate is the highest across the globe.
“India’s child wasting rate, at 19.3 percent, is the highest of any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population,” it said.
The position of India is also the lowest among the other South Asian Nations, ahead of only Afghanistan which is war-torn for several years making it difficult to control the hunger levels for the changing governments. India’s performance in child mortality and stunted growth has improved since 2014.
The neighbouring countries Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh scored 64, 99, 81, 71 and 84 respectively.
Countries below India in the Global Hunger Index include Zambia, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Liberia, Niger, Haiti, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Central African Republic and Yemen ranked the lowest.
The data from 15 countries- Somalia, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, among others- could not be recorded and so they were not included in the Global Hunger Index.
Last year, the Global Hunger Index was rejected by the Government of India. This year too the Government has said that the GHI tried to taint the image of India worldwide.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, it said that the measures taken up by the Global Hunger Index are erroneous and have numerous methodological issues.
Centre said that a “consistent effort” is visible to “taint India’s image” as a country that is not able to “fulfil the food security and nutritional requirements” of the people.
It said, three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of Children and cannot be representative of the entire population.
“A consistent effort is yet again visible to taint India’s image as a Nation that does not fulfill the food security and nutritional requirements of its population. Misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index,” the Ministry said.
The government said that India’s rank was estimated to be low based on the POU value of the country which was 16.3%. This was measured through the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) survey model by Gallup World Poll including 8 questions only. The sample size is very small compared to the population of the country, being the second largest in the world, and is not the correct method to calculate the POU value of India.
China has a score of less than 5 and topped the GHI along with 16 other nations.
The Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, remarked that the ruling party- Bharatiya Janata Party- delivers statements about developing a five trillion economy. However, 106 nations are “better than us in providing two meals a day.”
