India ranks 94th on the list of 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2020 and is in the “serious” category of hunger. The index is jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The index measures ‘hunger’ based on 4 parameters, viz., Undernourishment, child wasting( low weight), child stunting( low height), child mortality. Based on these 4 parameters a score is given to every country between 0 to 100, where 0 is the best and 100 is the worst score.
Now, if we talk about the rank of India, experts blamed poor implementation procedures, lack of effective monitoring, indifferent approach to tackling malnutrition and poor performance of large states. India ranked 102 in the list of 117 countries last year. Neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan are also in the “serious” category. But India scored worst among all neighbours except Afghanistan. Bangladesh is ranked 75th, Myanmar 78th, Pakistan 88th, Nepal is 73rd and Sri Lanka ranked 64th in South Asia.
17 countries, including China, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Cuba and Kuwait, topped the Global Hunger Index (GHI), which monitors hunger and malnutrition. This information has been given on the GHI website on Friday.
The report says, 14 per cent of India’s population is malnourished. The report said that the death rate of children under five is 3.7 per cent. Apart from this, the rate of such children, which could not increase due to malnutrition, is 37.4. Data for Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan from 1991 to now shows that there are more cases of child stunting in those families which are suffering from various types of deficiency. These include lack of nutritious food, low level of maternal education and poverty etc. During this period, there was a decrease in the death rate of children below five years of age in India.
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The report said that the death rate of children due to premature birth and low weight has increased, especially in poor states and rural areas. Experts believe that poor implementation processes, lack of effective monitoring, and lack of coordination in approaches to combat malnutrition are often the cause of poor nutrition indices.