Global Hunger Index

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring war-torn Afghanistan.

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels. 
• GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators – undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality.
• The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.

Global Hunger Index

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
• Annual Report: Jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
• It was first produced in 2006. It is published every October. The 2022 edition marks the 17th edition of the GHI.
• It’s aim to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.

Indicators: The four indicators for the index are:

• Undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient caloric intake),
• Child Wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute undernutrition) 
• Child Stunting (low height for age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and
• Child Mortality rate under 5 years of age.

India’s Scenario

• India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring war-torn Afghanistan.
• India’s score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category. India also ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
• Afghanistan (109) is the only country in South Asia that performs worse than India on the index.
• India’s score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category.
• India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) and even 2000 (17.15). This is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
• Prevalence of undernourishment has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021. This translates into 224.3 million people in India considered undernourished.
• Child stunting and child mortality: India has shown improvement in child stunting, which has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022. Similarly, child mortality has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.
• Overall, India has shown a slight worsening with its GHI score increasing from 28.2 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2022.