Seventeen countries, including China, Turkey, and Kuwait, shared the top rank with GHI score of less than five, the website of the Global Hunger Index that tracks hunger and malnutrition said on Saturday.
India has slipped six notches and reached 107th position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 of 121 countries, from its 2021 position of 101st. India now is lagging behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
What is Global Hunger Index (GHI)?
Hunger is the most eye-opening ramification of poverty which, in turn is the dreadful outcome of a complex cascading chain of events including political governance, socio-economic condition, equality, health, educational background and so on.
Global Hunger Index (GHI), the worldwide hunger monitoring repertoire, is a quantitative measuring index that tracks hunger across the globe and ranks the respective countries based on certain indicative parameters including undernourishment; child wasting (the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height), child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).
According to the official website of the Global Hunger Index, seventeen countries, including China, Turkey, and Kuwait, have secured the top rank with GHI score under five.
The GHI score is calculated on four indicators — undernourishment; child wasting (the share of children under the age of five who are wasted i.e who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition); child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).
In 2021, India was ranked 101 out of 116 countries. Now with 121 countries in the list, it has dropped to the 107th rank. India’s GHI score has also decelerated – from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.2 – 29.1 between 2014 and 2022.
POSITION FALLING SINCE 2016
India’s ranking in the GHI has been falling starkly for the past five years. From 97th position in 2016, India fell to 107th this year. In 2017, it was 100th, in 2021, it was 101st.
The government had last year slammed the report after India fell below the 100th rank, saying the methodology used to calculate the Global Hunger Index is unscientific.
