India has self-righteously denied that it ranks 107th out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022. Ostrich-like, the nation had contested being ranked 101st last year too. The devil is in the details. This year India is behind Pakistan (99), Bangladesh (84), Nepal (81), Myanmar (71) and Sri Lanka (64). Among Asian nations, China and Kuwait figure among the high-ranking 17 countries with 2022 GHI scores of less than 5.
The GHI is an efficacious tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger and undernutrition at global, regional, and national levels. It is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the fight against hunger, and call attention to those areas of the world where hunger levels are highest and where the need for additional efforts to eliminate hunger is greatest.
The goal to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture is among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Sadly, the world is not on track to achieve SDG-2: zero hunger by 2030. If present trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger would surpass 840 million by 2030.
The GHI, which lists countries by ‘severity’, is jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerlife, non-governmental organizations of Ireland and Germany respectively. At 121, Yemen occupies the lowest position, while the top slots are filled by European and other nations, including Croatia, Estonia and Montenegro.
From an international perspective, hunger and food insecurity are different. According to the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, food security is defined as meaning that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hunger is an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy. It becomes chronic when the person does not consume a sufficient amount of calories on a regular basis to lead a normal, active, and healthy life. Considering that FAO has always used the Prevalence of Undernourishment indicator to estimate the extent of hunger in the world, ‘hunger’ is a subset of undernourishment. A person is food insecure if he lacks regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. The reasons could be unavailability of food and/or lack of resources to obtain food. Food insecurity can be experienced at different levels of severity mapped by the GHI.
The FAO has rightly twinned hunger and food security and, as part of its mandate, has been making commendable efforts to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition. As part of its efforts to fulfil its mandate and achieve, in line with SDG-2, a world without hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition; FAO has been supporting the livelihoods of small-scale food producers, improving the resilience of food production systems, and encouraging the sustainable use of natural resources.
The GHI provides a comprehensive measure of hunger in all its dimensions by looking at four main indicators:(a) Undernourishment (inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (measured by caloric intake); (b) Child wasting (acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (low weight compared to height); (c) Child stunting (chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (low height compared to age); and (d) child mortality (inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five (proven inadequacy of nutrition).
For arriving at GHI, each country’s data sets are standardized on a 100-point scale and the final score calculated as per globally accepted benchmarks.Countries scoring less than or equal to 9.9 are slotted in the ‘low’ category of hunger, while those scoring between 20 and 34.9 are in the ‘serious’ category and those scoring above 50 are in the ‘extremely alarming’ category.
As per GHI 2022, India has a score of 29.1. If this is not a ‘serious’ matter for the nation’s rulers, one wonders what NITI Aayog thought leaders are hungering after. India has been recording decreasing GHI scores over the years. In 2000, it recorded a score of 38.8. That dwindled to 28.2 by 2014.
The country has been recording higher scores since then. Although India has been consistently recording lower values for the four indicators, the values started going up in 2014 for undernourishment and the prevalence of wasting in children. The proportion of undernourishment in the population went from 14.8 in 2014 to 16.3 in 2022, while the prevalence of wasting in children under five years jumped from 15.1 in 2014 to 19.3 in 2022.
Virtually trashing the GHI 2022, an official statement has described the report as part of a “consistent effort” to “taint India’s image”. It says the report ignores the food security efforts undertaken during the pandemic.
Let us keep aside the pandemic-hit years. Even the National Family Health Survey- (NFHS-5), conducted just before the pandemic, showed that more than 20 per cent of children below the age of five did not weigh as much as they should. It is an open secret that the nutritional deficiency of the country’s children is largely due to their poor diets. Ironically, even the affluent sections in the country, addicted to fast foods, do not consume adequate amounts of fruits, vegetables, and non-cereal proteins.
Considering the global benchmarks evolved to measure hunger in its broader concept, India would only be isolating itself from the international community if it starts undermining the GHI by picking holes in the methodologies and parameters used for calculating it.The nation cannot justify its position by citing data sets pertaining to measures of differing indicators of ‘hunger’ in its restricted, narrow sense.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts.
In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again very soon!
Pretty! This was an extremely wonderful article. Many thanks for providing this info.
This design is spectacular! You definitely know how to keep a reader entertained.
Between your wit and your videos, I was almost
moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Great job.
I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more
than that, how you presented it. Too cool!
It’s actually a cool and helpful piece of info. I’m glad that
you shared this helpful information with us. Please
keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Hello friends, fastidious article and good urging commented here, I am in fact enjoying
by these.