India has been ranked 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring war-torn Afghanistan.
Details –
- India ranks 107th out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index 2022.
- India also ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
- Afghanistan (109) is the only country in South Asia that performs worse than India on the index.
- Globally, progress against hunger has largely stagnated in recent years. The 2022 GHI score for the world is considered “moderate”.
- This is due to overlapping crises such as conflict, climate change, the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Ukraine war, which has increased global food, fuel, and fertiliser prices.
- It is expected to “worsen hunger in 2023 and beyond.”
India’s performance –
- Child wasting rate –
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- India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) and even 2000 (17.15%).
- It is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
- Undernourishment –
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- Prevalence of undernourishment, which is a measure of the proportion of the population facing chronic deficiency of dietary energy intake, has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
- This translates into 224 million people in India considered undernourished out of the total 828 million people undernourished globally.
- Child Stunting & Mortality –
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- Child stunting has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022.
- Child mortality has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.
- On the whole, India has shown a slight worsening with its GHI score increasing from 28.2 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2022.
About the ‘Global Hunger Index’ –
- The Index tracks key indicators used to measure progress toward Zero Hunger by 2030 at national, regional, and global levels.
- Based on the values of the four indicators – undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality– the GHI determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming.
- It is jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
- It was first produced in 2006. It is published every October. The 2022 edition marks the 17th edition of the GHI.
- GHI considers four parameters to for ranking countries –
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- Undernourishment: share of the population that is undernourished, reflecting insufficient caloric intake;
- Child wasting: share of children under the age of five who are wasted (low weight-for-height), reflecting acute under-nutrition;
- Child stunting: share of children under the age of five who are stunted (low height-for-age), reflecting chronic under-nutrition; and
- Child mortality: mortality rate of children under age five
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