India fares poorly in hunger index

News: The Global Hunger Index 2020 report has been released.

Facts:

• About the index: It is an annual report jointly published by Ireland’s Concern Worldwide and Germany’s Welthungerhilfe.
• Aim: To measure and track hunger at the global, regional and country levels.
• Indicators: The four indicators for the index are:
  • Undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient caloric intake),
  • child wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute undernutrition) 
  • child stunting (low height for age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and
  • Child mortality rate under 5 years of age.
• Based on the values of the four indicators, 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.

Key Takeaways:

• India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Index lower than neighbours such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88).
  • Child stunting: India has improved significantly from 54% in 2000 to less than 35% now. 
  • Child wasting: India’s child wasting rate is at around 17.3%.
  • Child mortality rates: India has improved in child mortality rates which is now at 3.7%
  • Undernourishment: India has about 14% of the total population which gets an insufficient caloric intake.