India rejects Global Hunger Index report

Report says India ranked below neighbouring countries Pak, Nepal, Bangladesh

India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2022, faring belowing neighbouring countries—Pakistan at 99, Bangladesh at 84, Nepal at 81 and Sri Lanka at 64 have all fared better than India. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.

With a score of 29.1, the level of hunger in India has been labelled “serious”. In 2021, India ranked 101 out of 116 countries, while in 2020 the country was placed at 94th position. Hours after the report made headlines, the Centre rejected it and called it a part of a consistent effort to taint the country’s image as “a nation that does not fulfil the food security and nutritional requirements of its population”.

Stating that “misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index”,  the Women and Child Development Ministry issued a statement saying the matter has been taken up with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues,” said the ministry. 

The report also said that South Asia, the region with the world’s highest hunger level, has the highest child stunting rate and by far the highest child wasting rate in the world. “India’s child wasting rate, at 19.3 per cent, is the highest of any country in the world.” Child wasting is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five years of age.

The report, however, also noted India’s improvement in two parameters—child stunting from 38.7 per cent in 2012-16 to 35.5 per cent in 2017-21 and child mortality from 4.6 per cent in 2014 to 3.3 per cent in 2020.

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India’s rank as per hunger index

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