Global Hunger Index 2021: India ranks a poor 101 among 116 countries
The latest Global Hunger Index has just been published, and India’s score of 27.5—with an attendant rank of 101—implying a level of hunger defined as ‘serious’, has drawn sharp criticism of the Narendra Modi government.
The Global Hunger Index 2021 (GHI 2021) has come out, and India has fared very poorly. With a score of 27.5, it is ranked India 101 out of 116 countries. The score of 27.5 also means that “India has a level of hunger that is serious”, according to the report (‘serious’ marked in bold, as in the report).
The index determines hunger on a 100-point scale, based on four indicators―child mortality, undernourishment, child wasting and child stunting. Zero, implying no hunger, is the best possible score.
India was ranked 94 among 107 countries last year. Now, it trails behind even Pakistan (92), Nepal and Bangladesh (both 76), the so-called poorer neighbours. In 2014, when the Narendra Modi government took office, India was ranked 55.
The report states that the GHI scores and indicator values in it are not comparable with those in previous years’ reports because “current and historical data on which the GHI scores are based are continually being revised and improved by the United Nations agencies that compile them”.
While data on child mortality is taken from the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, that on undernourishment is collected from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Numbers on child wasting and child stunting are collated from UNICEF, WHO, World Bank and Demographic and Health Surveys Programme.
Even if not compared with earlier years’ reports, a rank of 101 is far from desirable and calls for serious introspection.
A rank of 101 out of 116 also means that only 15 countries have fared worse―Papua New Guinea (102), Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111), Democratic Republic of Congo (112), Chad (113), Central African Republic (114), Yemen (115) and Somalia (116) ―all much smaller and economically poorer than India.
Naturally, the publication of the GHI 2021 report has drawn the government’s ire.
A statement by the Ministry of Women & Child Development (WMCD) questioned the methodology which was used to determine the level of hunger, as indicated by the score on ‘undernourishment’ in the country (drawn from FAO data, as indicated earlier), saying that it was surprising that “Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, have not been affected at all by pandemic-induced loss of job/business and reduction in income levels”.
Despite the BJP government’s gripe, the Global Hunger Index is a widely respected measurement across the globe of the state of nourishment in a country. It is produced by Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest aid and humanitarian agency and Welthungerhilfe, one of Germany’s biggest private organisations for development and humanitarian aid.
