INDIA’S HUNGER SCORE

1.Context:

Concerns Worldwide and Welthungerlife released the latest edition of the Global Hunger Index report. It ranked India 107 out of 121 countries that could be ranked and 136 countries that were assessed. Indian government dismissed the report calling it misinformation and a consistent effort to taint India's image.

2.Global hunger index

It uses four separate measures to capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.

These measures have been used in the index since its inception in 2006 and were last updated in 2015.

2.1.Four Measures

1. UNDERNOURISHMENT –the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient. This is closest to the everyday notion of hunger. This makes up 1/3 of the GHI score.
2. CHILD STUNTING- the share of children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition, this makes up 1/6 of the GHI score.
3. CHILD WASTING –the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition. This makes up 1/6 of the GHI score.
4. CHILD MORTALITY-the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, reflecting in the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments. This makes up 1/3 of the GHI score.

The overall score is placed on a 100-point scale. The lower the score, the better the country has performed.

3.GHI 2022

• A score of 20to 34.9 is pegged in the serious category and this is where India finds itself with a total score of 29.1
• India has made significant improvements in under 5mortality and child stunting has improved somewhat. The proportion of the undernourished population has gone up.
• In child wasting, India has slid back to a level worse than three decades ago. At over 19%, India’s child waste is the worst in the world.

4.Government's Contention

• There is consistent effort to taint India’s image
• Government questioned the methodology of GHI -

1. GHI uses an erroneous measure of hunger. In other words, it defines hunger in terms of other variables beyond the lack of food.
2. 3 out of the 4 variables used are related to children, and as such, cannot be representative of the entire population.
3. The fourth indicator, the proportion of the undernourished population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small size of 3,000.

• The government details how it has been providing additional free-of-cost food grains to 80 crore Indians since March 2020 over and above their entitlements.

5.Government contention Justified or not

• Researchers argue that India's GHI score could have been worse had it not been for this assistance as the pandemic hit the poor hard in an economy that was losing growth momentum over the three previous years.
• Researchers said a small child does not need huge quantities of food but rather a well-proportioned meal that caters to her nutritional needs.

 6.Analysing measuring techniques

It is pointed out that the authenticity of the data per se cannot be questioned because it is from India’s own data sets.

It is said that the FAQs on the GHI website clarify that it uses the prevalence of undernourishment metric, based primarily on data officially reported by member countries including India.

7.Conclusion

On the allegation that GHI was intended to taint India, experts pointed out that the index started as early as 2006 nor is it an India-specific survey. Also, India has been a laggard when it comes to nutrition.