Explained: What is the Global Hunger Index? Why has India rejected it?

The Global Hunger Index 2022 is out and it has left the government fuming. India ranked 107 on the list of 121 countries. With a score of 29.1, the level of hunger in India has been labelled “serious”.

Last year, India was 101 out of 116 countries while in 2020 the country was placed in the 94th position. This year, the country’s place has dropped further and it is behind its neighbours – Pakistan (99), Bangladesh (84), Nepal (81) and Sri Lanka (64). In Asia, Afghanistan with a rank of 109 is the only country behind India.

What is the Global Hunger Index?

The Global Hunger India (GHI), jointly published by Concern Worldwide, an aid and humanitarian agency, and Welthungerhilfe, a German non-profit, is a peer-reviewed annual report that aims to “comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels”. It is published keeping in mind United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) to achieve “Zero Hunger” by 2030.

The report endeavours to “raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger”.

A country with a low score on the index gets a higher ranking, implying a better performance.

This week’s #GHI2022 report shows that as many as 828 million people went hungry last year.

Concern works in 7 of the 10 countries listed as worst affected in the report.

⬇️ We break down what can contribute to hunger on this levelhttps://t.co/Dn8AyJIet3

— Concern Worldwide (@Concern) October 16, 2022

How is hunger calculated?

While our understanding of hunger is the lack of access to food, mathematically it is calculated by mapping calorie intake. It tracks the performance of countries using four indicators undernourishment (the measure of the proportion of the population facing chronic deficiency of dietary energy intake), child stunting (low height for age), child wasting (low weight for height) and child mortality (death of a child under the age of five), according to a report in The Hindu.

The data of each country is standardised on a 100-point scale. The final score is calculated after giving 33.33 per cent weight each to components 1 and 4, and giving 16.66 per cent weight each to components 2 and 3.

Countries scoring less than or equal to 9.9 are ranked “low”, while those scoring between 20 and 34.9 are placed in the “serious” category. Nations with a score above 50 are in the “extremely alarming” category.

The latest Global Hunger Index report - which uses data from 136 countries - shows 44 countries suffering with serious or alarming levels of hunger.

Find the full #GHI2022 report: https://t.co/maJhDTkAV2 pic.twitter.com/NHh03wm1wE

— Concern Worldwide (@Concern) October 13, 2022

Where does India stand?

India has a score of 29.1 and hence falls under the “serious” category. Its child-wasting rate, which reflects acute malnutrition, is the highest in the world at 19.3 per cent.

India, however, noted improvement in two parameters of child stunting from 38.7 per cent in 2012-16 to 35.5 per cent in 2017-21 and child mortality from 4.6 per cent in 2014 to 3.3 per cent in 2020.

In 2000, India was in the “alarming category” with a score of 38.8 and has improved since. The figure dropped to 28.2, putting India in the “serious” category in 2014. But India has not been able to improve since.

In 2021, India ranked 101 out of 116 countries while in 2020 it was in the 94th position.

A higher GHI score compared to previous years means India has shown a slight worsening. The proportion of undernourishment in the population went from 14.8 in 2014 to 16.3 in 2022.

Why is the Indian government upset?

India has rejected the hunger index for the second year in a row with the Ministry of Women and Child Development referring to it as “an erroneous measure of hunger”. It inaccurately claimed that GHI relied on an opinion poll.

According to the ministry, the report lowers India’s rank based on the estimates of the Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population, adding that the US Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate is based on the “Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)” survey module conducted using the Gallup World Poll, that bears a sample size of 3,000 respondents being asked eight questions, reports The Hindu.

It said that three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population.

In a statement, the Centre said that “a consistent effort is yet again visible to taint India’s image… misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index (GHI) and it reeks of bias.”.

What are rival political parties saying?

The Congress slammed the BJP government, saying it is “living in denial” and is suppressing facts. Senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is likely to become party president, said that the country has slipped in the hunger index yet again, now ranking 107, lagging behind every South Asian country except Afghanistan.

India has fallen on the hunger index yet again ,now ranking 107, lagging behind every south asian country except Afghanistan.

BJP's living in denial & trying to suppress facts has led India to this massive crisis.

Are there anymore excuses still left, Modi ji?

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) October 15, 2022

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked until when the RSS-BJP will work to “weaken” India by misleading the people from reality. “India ranks 107th out of 121 countries on hunger and malnutrition! Now the prime minister and his ministers will say, ‘Hunger is not increasing in India, rather people are not feeling hungry in other countries’”, he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Who are the best and worst performers?

China and Kuwait have a high rank (with a score of <5) along with Chile, Belarus, Croatia and Hungary.

Among the worst performers are the African nations of Chad, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, and Yemen, which is in the “alarming” category. No country has reported an extremely alarming level of hunger.

With inputs from agencies

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