India’s Pathetic Performance in ‘Global Hunger Index’
Global Hunger Index i.e. Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 India has slipped to 101st place in the list of 116 countries. India is also included in 31 countries where the problem of hunger is considered very serious. In 2020, India was ranked 94 out of 107 countries. As per the 2021 rankings, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have performed better than India.
Eighteen countries, including China, Brazil and Kuwait, shared the top spot with a GHI score of less than five, the website of the Global Hunger Index, which tracks hunger and malnutrition, said on Thursday.
The report, jointly prepared by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfe, described hunger levels in India as “alarming”. In 2020, India was ranked 94 out of 107 countries. Now it has come down to 101st place with 116 countries.
India’s GHI score has also dropped. It was 38.8 in 2000, which ranged from 28.8-27.5 between 2012 and 2021.
The GHI score is calculated on four parameters, including undernutrition, child wasting (children under five who are underweight for their height), child stunting (children under five who are tall for their age). is low) and child mortality (mortality rate of children under five years of age).
According to the report, the share of wasting among children in India increased from 17.1 percent between 1998-2002 to 17.3 percent between 2016-2020.
“People have been severely affected by COVID-19 and the pandemic restrictions in India, the country with the highest child wastage rates in the world,” the report said. Neighboring countries such as Nepal (76), Bangladesh (76), Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92) are also in the ‘dangerous’ hunger category, but have fared better in feeding their citizens than India, according to the report.
