GHI AND UNDERNOURISHMENT              

Disclaimer: Copyright infringement not intended.

Context

• The value of a key indicator used in the Global Hunger Index is ‘inflated’ as only 9% of the anganwadi children were found to be undernourished, the Union Government said.

About

• The GHI 2021 ranked India at 101 out of 116 countries.
• With a score of 27.5, India has a level of hunger that is serious.

Global Hunger Index

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that measures and tracks hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI is calculated annually.
• The index is based on four indicators — under-nourishment, wasting, stunting and under-five mortality.

India’s Performance

• Of these, India’s performance is shown to deteriorate only for undernourishment, which is what the Government has challenged.
• Many individual countries have also achieved reductions in hunger since 2000, but in some countries hunger persists or has even worsened.
• According to FAO’s data, which is used in the Index, the prevalence of undernourishment in India rose from 14% in 2017-2019 to 15.3% in 2018-2020 which the Government has called exaggerated.
• However, undernourishment and under-nutrition used as synonyms by the Government are treated as two different indicators by FAO and in the GHI.
• The Government has also alleged that there has been a “selective approach adopted to deliberately lower India’s rank” by relying on higher values of indicators such as stunting and wasting from different datasets available.

https://epaper.thehindu.com/Home/ShareArticle?OrgId=GRC93EUU4.1&imageview=0