Govt Expresses ‘Shock’ Over India’s 101 Rank In Global Hunger Index, Calls Methodology ‘Unscientific’

These remarks come as India is lagging behind its neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal in the Global Hunger Index. Afghanistan is the only Asian country behind India on this list.

New Delhi: As India slipped to 101st place among 116 countries ranked in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021, the Ministry of Women and Child Development expressed its “shock”, arguing that The Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) estimate “is found to be devoid of ground reality and facts”.

The FOA is a specialised agency of the United Nations. The ministry has further contended that its estimate “suffers from serious methodological issues”.

These remarks come as India was reported to be lagging behind its neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal in the Global Hunger Index. The report, jointly prepared by Concern Worldwide, an Irish-based aid agency, and Welt Hunger Hilf, a German organisation, described the level of hunger in India as ‘alarming’. Afghanistan is the only Asian country behind India on this list.

“It is shocking to find that the Global Hunger Report 2021 has lowered the rank of India on the basis of FAO estimate on proportion of undernourished population, which is found to be devoid of ground reality and facts and suffers from serious methodological issues. The publishing agencies of the Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have not done their due diligence before releasing the report,” the Ministry of Women and Child Development wrote in its response.

It further alleged that “the methodology used by FAO is unscientific. They have based their assessment on the results of a ‘four question’ opinion poll, which was conducted telephonically by Gallup. There is no scientific methodology to measure undernourishment like availability of food grains per capita during the period”. 

“The scientific measurement of undernourishment would require measurement of weight and height, whereas the methodology involved here is based on Gallup poll based on pure telephonic estimate of the population,” the ministry wrote in its statement. 

It further contended that the report completely disregards the Government’s “massive effort” to ensure the food security of the entire population during the COVID pandemic period.

According to the ministry, verifiable data on the same are available. It claims that the opinion poll “does not have a single question on whether the respondent received any food support from the Government or other sources. The representativeness of even this opinion poll is doubtful for India and other countries”.

The Women and Child Development Ministry also expressed its “surprise” from the FAO report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’, stating that other four countries of this region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, “have not been affected at all by COVID-19 pandemic induced loss of job/business and reduction in income levels, rather they have been able to improve their position on the indicator ‘proportion of undernourished population’ by 4.3%, 3.3%, 1.3% and 0.8% points respectively during the period 2018-20 over 2017-19”.

In its statement, the ministry highlights several initiatives of the Union government which it feels have been “completely ignored” in The Global Hunger Report 2021 and FAO report on ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’.

These include aid extended under schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna (PMGKAY), Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme (ANBS), Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna and PM KISAN Yojana along with other measures such as increase in MGNREGA wages.

In 2020, India was ranked 94 out of 107 countries. This year, it stands at 101st place out of 116 countries.

India’s GHI score has also dropped. It was 38.8 in the year 2000, which remained between 28.8 - 27.5 between 2012 and 2021. The GHI score is calculated on four indicators, which include undernourishment, malnutrition, child growth rate, and child mortality.

According to the report, neighboring countries such as Nepal (76th), Bangladesh (76th), Myanmar (71st), and Pakistan (92nd) are also in a worrying position due to hunger. However, as per the report, all these countries performed better than India in providing food to their citizens.

The Ministry, meanwhile, pointed to India’s position on the indicator of child mortality as having improved in 2021 as compared to last year. “Position on two indicators, i.e., child wasting and child stunting, has remained unchanged in 2021 compared with 2020,” it noted, citing the report.

(With PTI Inputs)