India ranks 111th among 125 countries in Global Hunger Index report

India has been ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023, highlighting the country’s serious issue of increasing hunger and malnutrition. This ranking is a significant drop from last year’s position of 107th, indicating a worsening situation. Despite this, India ranks higher than Mozambique, Afghanistan, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

The GHI score for India is 28.7 points, reflecting the severity of the situation. The country lags behind its neighbors such as Bangladesh (81), Pakistan (102), Nepal (69), and Sri Lanka (60).

The report reveals alarming statistics about malnutrition in India. The wasting rate among children stands at 18.7 percent, the highest globally. These are children who are underweight for their height. Additionally, records show that 58.1 percent of women aged 15 to 24 years have anemia, indicating that more than half of the women in this age group suffer from anemia.

"Furthermore, malnourishment affects 16.6 percent of the population in India, and stunting, which means they are short for their age, affects 35.5 percent of children under five years of age. The recorded death rate is 3.1 per cent among children under five years of age."

Hunger index flawed, methodological issues

The Indian government has been denying this report for the last two years, questioning the measurement or matrix used in this report. However, the figures shared in this report point towards a very serious situation of malnutrition in the country.

The Women and Child Development Ministry said the index suffers from “serious methodological issues and shows a malafide intent”.

"The index erroneously measures hunger and faces serious methodological issues," the report states. "Three out of the four indicators that calculate the index relate to children's health and cannot represent the entire population. The report says, "The fourth and most crucial indicator, 'Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population,' relies on an opinion poll with a tiny sample size of 3,000 people."

The ministry has reported that the data on children under five years old, as recorded on the Poshan Tracker, has seen a consistent increase from 6.34 crore in April 2023 to 7.24 crore in September 2023.

Globally, the situation of hunger and starvation is very worrying in nine countries including Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Lesotho, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. The situation remains serious in 34 other countries including India.

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