Why in news?
India is ranked 101 out of a total 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021.
What is it?
Global Hunger Index (GHI) is published jointly by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe every year, to comprehensively measure and trace hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
GHI scores are based on the values of four indicators:
- Child wasting: total share of children under age five who have Low weight-for-height.
- Child stunting: total share of children under age five who have Low height-for-age.
- Child mortality: it is the mortality of children under age -5.
- Under nourishment: total share of population with inadequate caloric intake.
The value of these four indicators is used to determine the score of countries and provide ranks according to their respective points.
In this, they use a 100-point scale, where 0 means no hunger and 100 means the worst. Each country’s GHI score is categorized by severity, from low to extremely alarming.
Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021-
India’s rank in GHI 2021 is 101 as compared to the previous year 2020 rank 94. India has a level of hunger that is ‘serious’, with a score of 27.5.
Most of the neighbouring countries are in better position than India.Pakistan-92, Bangladesh-76 and Nepal-76.
Top performing countries in GHI 2021 are Seventeen nations, including Belarus, China, Ukraine, Turkey, Cuba and Kuwait, are in low hunger category, shared the top rank with GHI scores of < 5.
Somalia is the most affected country by hunger and malnutrition, with GHI score of 50.8. Major causes of hunger are:
- Conflict
- Global climate change,
- The covid-19 pandemic challenges in economic and health sectors.
South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara are the world highest. Hunger in both regions is considered serious.
According to GHI, the world as whole and particularly 47 countries will fail to achieve low level of hunger by 2030.
Reasons of hunger in India-
- Poverty – It is the main reason behind the lack of adequate nutritional food which results in malnutrition and affects most vulnerable populations.
- Fund issues- Due to pandemic, many programmes of the government of India were affected. For example, National Nutrition Mission (Poshan Abhiyaan) programme was allocated Rs 950 crore in 2017-18. The pandemic gave a setback to the scheme in 2020-21.
- Food wastage- Due to inefficient supply chain management, a large share of food raw materials does not reach the consumer markets.
Initiatives to achieve zero hunger by India:
Mid-Day Meal Scheme-This scheme was launched in 1995.
The target of this scheme is to provide hot-cooked meal to children aged between 6 years to 14 years.
POSHAN Abhiyaan- Launched by the Prime Minister on 8 March, 2018.
The objective of the mission is to reduce the level of under-nutrition and also enhance the nutritional status of children in the country.
Public Distribution System- Public distribution system (PDS) is a government chain of shops authorized to distribute basic food and non-food commodities to the needy sections of the society at very cheap prices. Wheat, rice, kerosene, sugar, etc.
Poshan Vatika-The main objective is to provide nutrition through home grown vegetables and fruits (organically) and ensuring that the soil remain healthy.
Way forward-
Behavioural change with respect to importance of nutritional food, clean water, hygiene etc. to protect children from diseases.
Social protection schemes that give poor people access to nutritious food.
Strengthening the social protection programmes like ICDS, PDS, MID-DAY Meal etc.