According to the 2023 Global Hunger Index, India’s ranking has dropped from 107th to 111th out of 125 countries.
1 min read 10/13/2023, 09:40 PM IST
However, the government of India strongly disagrees with the findings, calling the report “wrong” and “not correct. “
The report, published by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, two non-governmental organizations from Ireland and Germany, states that India has a GHI score of 28. 7, which means there is a significant problem with hunger. Last year, India was ranked 107th out of 125 countries.
The government department for women and child development disagreed with the GHI report and said that it is not a reliable way to measure hunger in India.
The GHI also looked at nearby countries. Pakistan was ranked 102nd, Bangladesh was ranked 81st, Nepal was ranked 69th, and Sri Lanka was ranked 60th. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa were found to have the most hunger.
The ministry argued that the GHI has flaws in its methods because three out of its four measures mainly focus on child health and may not accurately represent the whole population. The fourth and most important measure, called the ‘Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population,’ is determined by asking the opinion of a small group of 3,000 people.
The report also mentioned that India has the highest rate of child wasting in the world, which means that a large number of children in India are not getting enough nutrition and are severely undernourished.
The government said that things like being shorter and thinner are caused by many different factors, like clean living conditions, genetics, surroundings, and how well we use the food we eat. It’s not only because someone is hungry, like the GHI suggests.
Additionally, it pointed out that there isn’t much proof to show that hunger directly causes child deaths. The government said that since April 2023, the information about children under five years old on the Poshan Tracker has been increasing continuously. The percentage of malnourished children has been consistently less than 7. 2%, which is much lower than the 18. 7% mentioned in the Global Hunger Index 2023.