India slips 7 spots to rank 101 among 116 countries on Global Hunger Index

Source: This post is based on the articles 

• “Hunger Index: poor ranking devoid of ground reality and facts, says Govt” published in The Hindu on 16th October 2021. 
• “India slips 7 spots to rank 101 among 116 countries on Global Hunger Index” published in Down To Earth on 15th October 2021. 
• “Statement of Ministry of Women and Child Development on Global Hunger Report 2021” published in PIB on 15th October 2021. 

What is the News? 

Global Hunger Index 2021 has been released and the government has challenged India’s poor ranking and the methodology used, calling it “devoid of ground reality and facts”. 

The data used to come up with the Index this time was from 2016–2020. 

What are the key findings of the “Global Hunger Index”-2021? 

Findings regarding India

India’s score on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) in the recent two decades has declined by 10 points. It slipped to 28.8 in 2021, from 38.8 in 2000. 

It ranked India at 101st position of 116 countries. India was ranked 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) released last year. 

Globally, India ranked among the worst in ‘child wasting’ or ‘weight for height’. Its performance was worse than Djibouti and Somalia. 

Report has shown increase in the value of ‘proportion of population undernourished’ from 14.0% for the previous period 2017-19 to 15.3% for the latest period 2018-20. 

According to the report, only 15 countries fare worse than India. India was also behind most of the neighbouring countries. Pakistan was placed at 92, Nepal and Bangladesh at 76 and Sri Lanka at 65. 

Global findings

Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming. 

The level of hunger was ‘serious’ in 36 countries besides India. In nine countries severity was ‘alarming’. It was ‘extremely alarming’ in Somalia, which ranked 116 on the Index this year. 

What are the allegations of the government against the report? 

It is the FAO report used for assessing undernourishment that the Government has questioned.  

The results of a ‘four question’ opinion poll have been questioned by the Government that has been conducted for undernourishment. 

According to FAO report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’, four countries of this region — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka-despite covid 19, were able to improve their position on the indicator ‘proportion of undernourished population during the period 2018-20 over 2017-19. 

What is the ‘Global Hunger Index’? 

It is an annual report jointly published by ‘Concern Worldwide’ and ‘Welthungerhilfe’. 

GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators — child wasting, child stunting, child mortality and undernourishment. 

The prevalence of undernourishment in a population is calculated in a scientific manner that includes habitual dietary energy intake levels, information on the population structure and median height in each sex and age. 

Read More: Global Hunger Index