GUWAHATI: Among an index of 117 countries, India ranked 102nd on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), which was the lowest ranking among all South Asian countries assessed in the report.
This year, India’s ranking fell by a significant margin, with even Pakistan, which is the only country in South Asia to rank below India, ranking higher in the 94th place. In addition, Bangladesh too, surpassed India with the 88th rank.
It should be noted that in 2015, India ranked in the 93rd place; in 2016, it ranked in 97th place, while in 2017, it ranked 100th and in 2018, it ranked 103rd. Based on these numbers, India is witnessing a declining trend in this multi-continent assessment.
The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst. Values which are less than 10 reflect low hunger, values from 20 to 34.9 indicate serious hunger, while values from 35 to 49.9 are alarming and values of 50 or more are extremely alarming.
The report scored India at 30.3 which puts it in the 'serious hunger' category.
The rankings in this report are based on a GHI score which shows data from 2014 to 2018. The data on the proportion of undernourished are for 2016–2018; data on child stunting and wasting are for the latest year in the period 2014–2018; and data on child mortality are for 2017.
The score is based on the proportion of child population which are undernourished in a country, the percentage of children under five years of age who have inadequate weight in correlation to their height (wasting), the percentage of children under five years of age whose height is not up to par with their age (stunting) and the mortality rate of children under five years of age.
Based on the report, India has the highest child wasting rate at 20.8% as compared to any other country included in the report. The country’s child stunting rate, 37.9 percent, is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance. As of 2015–2016, 90 percent of Indian households used an improved drinking water source while 39 percent of households had no sanitation facilities.
The report also stated that “because of its large population, India’s GHI indicator values have an outsized impact on the indicator values of the region.”
Based on this year’s ranking, India’s scores have pulled down the rankings of the entire South Asian region to a point where it does worse than sub-Saharan Africa.
A total of only 9.6% of children between 6-23 months in India were fed a minimum acceptable diet, according to the report.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and national levels. It is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a means to compare the levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to the areas of the world in greatest need of additional resources to eliminate hunger, according to its official website.