Global Hunger Index

Why in news?

• India's ranking in Global Hunger Index 2022 is 107 (slipped from the 2021 index of 101) out of 121 countries.
• India has performed worse than all the countries in the South Asian region.

More about the news:

• Among South Asian countries India is ranked below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
• India has a score of 29.1 which places it under ‘serious’ category.

About Global Hunger Index:

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
• GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators:
  • Undernourishment
  • Child stunting
  • Child wasting
  • Child mortality
• The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger - zero is the best score (implies no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
• The GHI is prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
• It is an annual report and each set of GHI scores uses data from a 5-year period.

Highlights of GHI 2022:

• Globally, the progress against hunger has largely stagnated in recent years; there is only a slight improvement.
• However, the 2022 GHI score is still considered “moderate”.
• Causes for the stagnation in this progress are conflicts among countries, climate change, the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic etc.

Top and Worst Performers:

• Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Chile, China and Croatia are the top five countries in GHI 2022.
• Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Central African Republic and Yemen are the countries ranked at the bottom of the index.

India’s Performance in the Four Indicators:

• Child Wasting:
  • India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%).
  • It is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
• Undernourishment:
  • Prevalence of undernourishment has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
  • It implies that 224.3 million people in India (out of 828 million globally) are considered undernourished.
  • The indicator measures the proportion of the population facing chronic deficiency of dietary energy intake.
• Child Stunting:
  • India has shown improvement in child stunting and child mortality.
  • Child stunting (low height for age) has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022.
• Mortality:
  • Child mortality (mortality rate under the age of five) has dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Which of the following are the parameters of Global Hunger Index?

1. Undernourishment

2. Child wasting

3. Child stunting

4. Child mortality

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 1,2 and 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1,2,3 and 4

Answer