Global Hunger Index 2022

India has performed worse than every nation in South Asia, with the exception of war-torn Afghanistan, according to the Global Hunger Index 2022. It came in at number 107 out of 121 nations.

Referring to the Global Hunger Index (GHI)

• India dropped to 101st place out of 116 countries according to the GHI 2021. (from its 94th position in 2020).
• The GHI is a tool created to fully assess and monitor hunger at the international, regional, and national levels, reflecting many aspects of hunger throughout time.
• Published by: The largest assistance and humanitarian organisation in Ireland, Concern Worldwide, and Welthungerhilfe collaborate to yearly issue the GHI.
• In 2006, the first GHI report was released.
• Calculation: Each nation's GHI score is determined using a system that combines four factors that collectively depict the multifaceted character of hunger.
• Undernourishment is the percentage of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient.
• Stunting in children is the percentage of children under the age of five that are underweight for their age.
• Child wasting is the percentage of kids under five that are underweight for their height, a sign of severe malnutrition.
• Child mortality is the percentage of kids that pass away before turning five, which is partially due to the deadly combination of poor nutrition and hazardous settings.
• The GHI score is determined on a scale of zero to one hundred, with zero denoting no hunger and one hundred denoting extreme hunger.
• Each set of GHI scores is based on data from a 5-year period, and the GHI is a yearly report. Data from 2017 through 2021 are used to compute the GHI scores for 2022.

What is each country's GHI 2022 performance?

• Global Development: Globally, the fight against hunger has mostly stalled in recent years; in 2022, the score was 18.2, down from 19.1 in 2014, which represents a little improvement. The 2022 GHI score is still regarded as "moderate," nonetheless.
• Conflicts between nations, climate change, the economic effects of the CoVid-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war, which has driven up global food, fuel, and fertiliser prices and is anticipated to "worsen hunger in 2023 and beyond," are some of the plausible reasons for the stagnation in this progress.
• According to the index, 44 nations currently experience "severe" or "alarming" levels of hunger, and "without a substantial shift, neither the globe as a whole nor about 46 countries are forecast to attain even low hunger as defined by the GHI by 2030."

Best and worst actors:

• The top five nations in the GHI 2022 are Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, China, and Croatia.
• The nations at the bottom of the index are Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, and Yemen.
• India and Neighboring Countries: India (107) is rated last among the South Asian nations, trailing Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
• India received a score of 29.1, putting it in the "severe" category.
• The only South Asian nation that ranks lower than India on the index is Afghanistan (109).
• China, together with 16 other nations, took the top spot on the chart with a score of less than 5.

Performance of India in the Four Indicators:

• Child Wasting: With a rate of 19.3%, India has the worst child wasting (low weight for height) than either 2014 (15.1%) or even 2000 (17.15%).
• Due to India's massive population, it is the highest of any nation in the globe and raises the average for the region.
• Undernourishment: From 14.6% in the years 2018–2020 to 16.3% in the years 2019–2021, the prevalence of undernourishment has increased nationwide.
• Out of the 828 million people worldwide, it suggests that 224.3 million people in India are undernourished.
  The indicator counts the percentage of the population who consistently don't consume enough calories from food.
• Child Mortality and Stunting: India has made progress in reducing child mortality and stunting.
• Between 2014 and 2022, the prevalence of child stunting (low height for age) decreased from 38.7% to 35.5%.
• In the same comparison era, child mortality (mortality rate for children under the age of five) decreased from 4.6% to 3.3%.

Indian Hunger Issues

• According to the Food and Agriculture Report, 2020, India is home to 195.9 million of the 821 million undernourished people worldwide, or around 24% of all hungry people.
• India has a 14.8% higher rate of undernourishment than the norm for Asia and the rest of the world.
• In 2020, the National Health Survey found that over 19 crore people in the nation were required to go to bed every night on an empty stomach.
• Under-five malnutrition and hunger: Due to famine and malnutrition, 4500 children under the age of five pass away in India every day. This equates to approximately 30,000 deaths every year caused only by child starvation.

Causes of malnutrition and hunger

• Specific Causes: Malnutrition in India takes on many forms.
• Despite the government's surplus of food grains, there is a calorific shortage as a result of inefficient distribution and allocation. Even the annual budget allotted is not used entirely.
• Pulses are a crucial solution to the problem of protein deficiency. However, there isn't enough money in the budget to include pulses in PDS. A simple option to increase protein consumption is lost when eggs aren't offered on the menus of midday meals in several states.
• India is experiencing a major crisis with regard to micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger). Poor diet, the prevalence of disease, or the failure to meet the increased micronutrient requirements during pregnancy and lactation are some of its causes.
• Poor access to sanitary facilities and safe drinking water (especially toilets).
• Inadequate levels of vaccination against communicable diseases.
• women are not adequately informed on the value of a holistic diet.
• Hunger, debt, and poverty are vicious cycles.
• Spoilage, waste, and post-harvest losses in warehouses
• Inadequate market and transportation connectivity.
• Poor people cannot afford fruits, nuts, eggs, or meat.

Governmental Actions

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched the "Eat Right India Movement" to encourage citizens to eat healthfully.
• ABHIYAN POSHAN: The Ministry of Women and Child Development launched it in 2018, and its goals include reducing anaemia, stunting, and undernutrition (among young children, women and adolescent girls).
• Pradhan MMVY: Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana A maternity benefit programme, funded centrally and overseen by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, is being implemented in all districts of the nation as of January 1st, 2017.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, a federally funded programme that provides maternity benefits, in all districts across the nation as of January 1, 2017.
• Fortification of foods: Food fortification, also known as food enrichment, is the process of improving the nutritional value of staple foods like rice, milk, and salt by adding important vitamins and minerals including iron, iodine, zinc, Vitamin A & D.
• National Food Security Act, 2013 It gave the Targeted Public Distribution System the authority to provide subsidised food grains to up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population.

Read Also: Global Hunger Index