Global Hunger Index 2021

• India has slipped to the 101st position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 from its 2020 ranking (94), to be placed behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
• With this, only 15 countries fared worse than India this year.
• A total of 18 countries, including China, Kuwait and Brazil, shared the top rank with GHI score of less than five.

Global Hunger Index

• It is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
• It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
• The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.

Calculation of GHI scores

• For each country, values are determined for four indicators:

UNDERNOURISHMENT

• share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient);

CHILD WASTING:

• the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition);

CHILD STUNTING:

• the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); and

CHILD MORTALITY

• the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments).

India and GHI

• According to the report, the share of wasting among children in India rose from 17.1 per cent between 1998-2002 to 17.3 per cent between 2016-2020.
• However, India has shown improvement in indicators like the under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food as per report.