Government Says Global Hunger Index Is Flawed

The government of India has rejected India’s rank of 101 amongst 116 countries in the recently released Global Hunger Index. According to the index hunger level in India is “serious”.

In response to a question By Biju Janta Dal (BJD) MP Mahesh Sahoo in Lok Sabha, the Ministry of women and child development said the index does not reflect the true state of hunger in the country and is flawed.

Only one of the four indicators i.e., undernourishment, is directly linked to hunger, the other factors like child mortality, child wasting, and child stunting do not hold any significance. Also, there is little evidence that child mortality is a result of starvation, said the ministry.

“The information utilized in the Global Hunger Index study comes from international organizations, which may have not been updated with the most recent information available in the nation. For example, the data source for the indicator “Prevalence of Undernourishment” is the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which relied on a telephonic survey. The survey completely ignored the government’s economic response to Covid-19, that involved providing free food grains to 80 crore National Food Security Act beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. This resulted in an unacceptably low estimate for India for the triennium of 2018–2020.”

Global hunger index

Global Hunger Index is published every year by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. It is a peer-reviewed publication aiming to comprehensively quantify and track global, regional, and national hunger. The GHI seeks to mobilize action to fight hunger on a global scale.

Scores in Global Hunger Index 2022

India ranked 101^st out of 116 countries. Its GHI score dropped from 38.8 points in 2000, which was regarded as alarming, to 27.5 points in 2021, which is considered problematic. According to the report, the proportion of the undernourished population and mortality rate of children under five years of age are currently at reasonably low levels.

Government — Image Source: LEARN GERMAN – DW

According to the Global Hunger Index, on child wasting “India has the highest child wasting rate of any GHI-covered nation, at 17.3%, as per the most recent statistics. This percentage is marginally higher as compared to 1998–1999 when it was 17.1 percent.