India swings into action to climb up Global Hunger Index

The government has begun work on measures to improve India’s ranking on the global hunger index after the country slipped to 101 from 94 in ranking.

The government is considering carrying out a food consumption survey, last done in 2012 to get updated data on consumption patterns across the country.

A high-level meeting was held under the Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar last week to identify the problem areas and build a consensus among all stakeholder ministries on what can be done to lift India’s ranking. India had slipped to 101 position on the Global Hunger Index 2021 out of 116 countries ranked across the globe. India stood at 94 out of 107 countries in 2020.

The meeting was to take stock of the weak spots and work on them to improve the ranking in the coming year, a top government official told ET.

“Absence of recent data means the progress on work done in areas of malnutrition and undernourishment is not being captured,” the official said. “There is a consensus that we need to update the food consumption survey which was last done in 2012.

According to the official, India is of the view index needs a name change as it was inappropriate to term it as Hunger Index. “While there are still problems of malnourishment and undernourishment in the country, a lot of work is being done. Hence, it is not appropriate to call it a Hunger Index,” the official said.

The Global Hunger Index tracks key indicators used to measure progress towards Zero Hunger by 2030 at national, regional and global levels.

The four indicators used for assessing the performance of nations include undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality.

The index determines hunger on a 100-point scale where 0 means no hunger and 100 is the worst.

Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming. (Courtesy The Economic Times)