Global Hunger Index : India slips seven positions to 101 in Global Hunger Index 2021

   India at 101 ranks out of a total of 116 countries according to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) launched on Thursday.  It was noticed that last year Global Hunger Index (GHI) placed India at 94 among 107 countries. Also, India is among the 31 countries where hunger is recognized as serious.

About Global Hunger Index

 The Global Hunger Index (GHI) marks hunger and malnutrition across countries every year. It is created to aware, makes people understand the struggle against hunger, and identifies those areas where hunger levels are high and need urgent attention. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is calculated on four factors which include:

• Malnourished
• Child Wasting (Children under the age of 5 having low weight under their height)
• Child Stunting (Children having low weight for their age)
• Child Mortality (Mortality rate of children under the age of 5)

15 countries worse off than India

This year 15 countries are worse off than India in Global Hunger Index.

• Papua New Guinea (102)
• Afghanistan (103)
• Nigeria (103)
• Congo (105)
• Mozambique (106)
• Sierra Leone (106)
• Timor-Leste (108)
• Haiti (109)
• Liberia (110)
• Madagascar (111)
• Democratic Republic of Congo (112)
• Chad (113)
• Central African Republic (114)
• Yemen (115)
• Somalia (116)

India behind the neighboring countries

 It was noticed that India was behind the neighboring countries which include Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan in Global Hunger Index (GHI). Nepal has placed at 76 positions Bangladesh at 76, Myanmar at 71, and Pakistan at 92 in Global Hunger Index this year. But at the same time the report said that these countries are in the disturbing starving category. On the other hand, the countries that shared the top rank in Global Hunger Index include China, Kuwait and Brazil. Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfe produced a report that declared the level of hunger in India disturbing.

People were severely affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic

In India, the share of wasting among children jump up from 17.1% between 1998-2002 to 17.3 % between 2016-2020 and people have been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the restrictions according to the reports. The report said India had shown betterment in other factors such as under-5 mortality rate, the occurrence of stunting, and undernourishment among children.

Based on the current scores of the Global Hunger Index the fight against hunger is badly unsettled. It seems like that the world as a whole will fail to gain a low level of hunger by 2030. It was noticed that since 2000 Global hunger has been decreasing and undernourishment which is one of the factors to calculate GHI scores is increasing. Also, conflicts, climate change, economic and health challenges all connected with the Covid-19 pandemic are in the disturbing starving category and inequalities are increasing and if not controlled then we will fail to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) added by the reports.