India is at the 94^th rank out of the 107 countries surveyed on hunger. The rank places India in the ‘severe hunger’ category as per the Global Hunger Index 2020.  The global hunger index, started by the US based International Food Policy Research Institute in 2006, is now a joint project by Germany based Welthungerhilfe and the Irish NGO-Concern Worldwide. It carries out a multidimensional measure of the hunger at the global, national, regional levels by giving a numerical score derived from various aspects of the hunger.

Out of the total 107 countries surveyed, 13 countries which are worse than India include countries like Rwanda (97), Nigeria (98) Afghanistan (99), Mozambique (103), Chad (107) and Liberia (102).  A concerning aspect is that India is at a worse rank than most of its South Asian neighbours; Pakistan (88), Nepal (73), Bangladesh (75), Sri Lanka (64), and Myanmar (78), with Afghanistan (99) being the only country faring worse than India. One can say that this year, the rank has improved since last year India was ranked at 102 out of 117 countries. India’s score on the GHI scale this year is 27.2. With this score, India has a level of hunger that comes in the category of ‘Serious’. It is interesting to note that the rank of India on the GHI scale has been deteriorating drastically since 2014. The GHI rank of India has been worsening from 55 in 2014 to 103 in 2018.

According to the Global hunger index, the percentage of India’s population that is undernourished stands at 14%.  GHI data also indicated that the country has recorded a stunting rate of 37.4% among the children. Stunted children are those that show chronic under-nutrition and generally have a ‘low height for their age’. GHI data from 1991 through 2014 for Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan show that stunting is concentrated among those children who are facing multiple forms of deprivation including poor dietary diversity, lower level of maternal education, and poverty of the household.

In the latest report, GHI has put the worldwide hunger at a moderate level but has warned that nearly 690 million people across the world are undernourished. Out of the GHI data released, one positive aspect is that India has experienced a decline in under-five mortality rate between 2000 and 2018. The world has been experiencing a moderate level of hunger as a whole but still, in 31 countries, the issue of hunger is serious, and more countries are provisionally categorized as serious.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.