Arnab Chanda
India now ranks 94th among 107 countries in terms of hunger, and continues to be in the ‘severe’ hunger category according to the Global Hunger Index 2020. According to the study, 14% of India’s population is undernourished. Last year, India’s GHI rank was 102 out of 117 countries, whereas in 2018, India ranked 103 among 119 countries on the global hunger index. South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara have the worst hunger conditions among global regions, the GHI found.
The country needs to take note of two pieces of news this week. @narendramodi ji’s wealth increased by Rs 36 lakh in one year and India has ranked 94th out of the 107 countries in Global Hunger Index. #WorldFoodDay2020https://t.co/29G4ABwBfc
— Mausam Noor | মৌসম নুর (@MausamNoor) October 16, 2020
Global Health Index
The GHI is “a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and national levels”. Data from the United Nations and other multilateral agencies are used for the calculation. The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels. India ranks lower than most of its South Asian neighbours – Pakistan (88), Nepal (73), Bangladesh (75), Sri Lanka (64) and Myanmar (78) – and only Afghanistan fares worse, at 99th place. The statistics for Bhutan are not available.
It uses four parameters to determine its scores. India fares worst in child wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute under nutrition) and child stunting (low height for age, reflecting chronic under nutrition), which together make up a third of the total score.
After India goes below Bangladesh in per capita GDP, India reaches almost the bottom of the world hunger index even below Bangladesh and Pakistan! Great going Modiji pic.twitter.com/l1VmjEAoPJ
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) October 17, 2020
Pandemic effect
Globally, nearly 690 million people are undernourished, according to the report, which warns that the COVID-19 pandemic could have affected the progress made on reducing hunger and poverty.
“The world is not on track to achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal — known as Zero Hunger for short — by 2030. At the current pace, approximately 37 countries will fail even to reach low hunger, as defined by the Global Hunger Index Severity Scale, by 2030,” says the report. “These projections do not account for the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may worsen hunger and under nutrition in the near term and affect countries’ trajectories into the future … COVID-19 has made it clearer than ever that our food systems, as they stand, are inadequate to the task of achieving Zero Hunger.”
#GlobalHungerIndex 2020 was released recently.India ranked 94th out of 107 countries & fell in the “Serious” category.Sri Lanka at 64,Nepal at 73,Bangladesh at 75 & Pakistan at 88 all fared better.India was ranked below Congo,Ethiopia&Angola.But we beat North Korea by 0.3 points.
— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) October 16, 2020
GHI report
India has the highest prevalence of wasted children under five years in the world, which reflects acute under nutrition, according to the Global Hunger Index 2020. The situation has worsened in the 2015-19 period, when the prevalence of child wasting was 17.3%, in comparison to 2010-14, when it was 15.1%.
“Data from 1991 through 2014 for Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan showed that stunting is concentrated among children from households facing multiple forms of deprivation, including poor dietary diversity, low levels of maternal education, and household poverty,” the GHI report stated.
“In many countries the situation is improving too slowly, while in others it is worsening. For 46 countries in the moderate, serious, or alarming categories, GHI scores have improved since 2012, but for 14 countries in those categories, GHI scores show that hunger and under nutrition have worsened. The latest GHI projections show that 37 countries will fail to achieve even low hunger by 2030,”
However, there has been a drop in under-five mortality rates in the country. “India – the region’s most populous country – experienced a decline in under-five mortality in this period, driven largely by decreases in deaths from birth asphyxia or trauma, neonatal infections, pneumonia, and diarrhea,” stated the report.
Propaganda & spin of fastest growing economy in the world!
India ranks at 94 amongst 107 countries in the global hunger index .
Shame.
PM Modi distribute the more than 10,000 crore tonnes of food grains rotting in central godowns free to the hungry. https://t.co/Kqf61Fifkf— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) October 16, 2020
