It is not a very comforting to be told time and again how much of a hungry nation we are. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) does just that. Published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, it goes one up on The State of Food Insecurity in the World report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by putting things in perspective.
India stands 67th among 84 developing countries in this index – the lower rung you are on the ladder, the more hungry you are. The ones faring worse than India are Bangladesh, Liberia, Angola, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, among others, with the conflict-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo at the bottom. India, despite improvements, has fallen two ranks. Even North Korea, Sudan and Pakistan seem better off. This index does not mean that India is doing too bad; what it indicates is that others are doing better in terms of tackling hunger.
Released ahead of World Food Day (October 16) for the fifth year, the report is published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.
The Index scores countries based on three equally weighted indicators: the proportion of people who are undernourished, the proportion of children under five who are underweight, and the child mortality rate. The biggest contributor to the global score is child undernutrition, which accounts for almost half of the score.
At the beginning of the liberalisation era in 1990-92, 24 per cent of the population was undernourished. The situation marginally improved to 22 per cent in 2004- 2006. Some 59.5 per cent of children below five were underweight in 1988-92. This figure has dropped to 43.5 per cent in 2003-08, but still remains grim.
In 2005-06, about 44 per cent of Indian children under age five were underweight and 48 per cent were stunted. Because of the country’s large population, India is home to 42 per cent of the world’s underweight children and 31 per cent of its stunted children.
The GHI ranks countries on a scale of 100, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 the worst. It is composed of three equally weighted indicators: the proportion of undernourished in the population, the prevalence of those underweight in children under five and the under-five mortality rate. The figures for India are 22 per cent (as of 2004-6), 43.5 per cent (2003-8) and 6.9 per cent as of 2008, respectively. These give India a composite GHI of 24.1, which is classified as alarming in terms of the food security situation. This is down from the GHI of 31.7 in 1990.
Things haven’t improved so much as those world wealth reports would have us believe.
The Index is calculated for 122 developing and transition countries for which data on the three components of hunger are available. Twenty-nine countries have levels of hunger that are “extremely alarming” or “alarming.” Most of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. While the highest regional GHI scores are for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia has made much more progress since 1990. In South Asia, the low nutritional, educational, and social status of women is among the major factors that contribute to a high prevalence of malnutrition in children under five.
This one and the report released by FAO/WFP serve as grim reminders that no matter how much we laud ourselves for being on our way to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in real terms we are lagging behind. Desperately and disconcertingly so.
