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India’s poor rank under the Global Hunger Index
Why is it in News?
- India has been ranked 94 out of 107 countries on the 2020 Global Hunger Index (GHI), lower than neighbours like Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Details:
- GHI report:
(1) World:
(a) 690 million people in the world are undernourished
(b) 144 million children suffer from stunting;
(c)47 million children suffer from wasting.
(2) India:
(a) The number of young children in India who are very short and thin reflects severe undernutrition.
(b) It puts India alongside the poorest African nations.
(c) India falls in the ‘serious’ category on the Index, with a total score of 27.2.
(d) 14% of India’s population does not get enough calories, an improvement from almost 20% in 2005-07.
(e) The child mortality rate is 3.7%, a significant drop from 9.2% in 2000.
(3) BRICS countries:
(a) China and Brazil both scored under five, and are considered to have very low levels of hunger.
(b) South Africa is ranked 60 with a score of 13.5, indicating moderate levels of hunger.
GHI:
(1) It is an annual peer-reviewed publication by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
(2) It aims to track hunger at global, regional and national levels.
(3) It uses four parameters to calculate its scores.
(a) the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population;
(b) the proportion of children under the age of five suffering from wasting, a sign of acute undernutrition;
(c) the proportion of children under the age of five suffering from stunting, a sign of chronic undernutrition; and
(d) the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
(4) These parameters use information from the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the United Nations, along with National Data.
(5) In India’s case, it uses the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS).
- Why India scored poor:
(1) India’s poor score comes almost entirely from the child stunting and wasting parameters.
(2) Almost 35% of Indian children are stunted.
(3) Although this is much better than the 54.2% rate of 2000, it is still among the world’s worst.
(4) 3% of Indian children under five are wasted, which is the highest prevalence of child wasting in the world.
Reasons for stunting and wasting:
- Reasons for stunting and wasting:
(1) Poor state of maternal health
(a) Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and undernourished, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
(b) social factors like early marriage
(c) low body mass index and anaemia
(d) Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause
- Performance of States:
(1) Stunting:
(a) Bihar performs the worst with stunting rate of 42%.
(b) Other populous States like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh also have stunting rates just below 40%.
(2) Wasting:
(a) One in three children in Jharkhand show acute undernutrition, with a 29% rate of wasting.
(b) Other large States such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka also have one in five children who are wasted.
(3) What needs to be done:
(4) food security and access to healthy food
(5) better sanitation and elimination of open defecation
(6) provide food, primary healthcare and immunisation services to young children and mothers.