Global Hunger Index 2020 released: India ranks 94 out of 107 countries

The Global Hunger Index 2020 (GHI) was released in October 2020. GHI is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by two international NGOs - Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. GHI is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels. GHI scores are calculated each year to assess progress and setbacks in combating hunger. 

GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a way to compare levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to those areas of the world where hunger levels are highest and where the need for additional efforts to eliminate hunger is greatest.

GHI is calculated based on four indicators:

1. Undernourishment: Share of the population that is undernourished 
2. Child wasting: Share of children under the age of five who are wasted
3. Child stunting: Share of children under the age of five who are stunted
4. Child mortality: Mortality rate of children under the age of five. 

GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst. Values less than 10 reflect low hunger, values from 20 to 34.9 indicate serious hunger; values from 35 to 49.9 are alarming; and values of 50 or more are extremely alarming.

Progress and Setbacks

The 2020 GHI shows that while the world has made gradual progress in reducing hunger on a global scale since 2000, this progress has been too slow. The global level of hunger has fallen from a GHI score of 29.0 points in 2000 to 18.2 points in 2020. While this is encouraging, hunger persists in many countries, and in some instances, progress is even being reversed.

Where are Hunger Levels the Worst? 

Alarming levels of hunger exist in eleven countries: Chad, Timor-Leste, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Yemen, Comoros, Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and DR Congo. Several of these countries are experiencing unrest or violent conflict, which affects the availability of data as well as the food and nutrition situation in the country. 

Serious levels of hunger exists in 40 countries including India, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, and Mauritania. For 14 countries in the moderate, serious or alarming categories, hunger and malnutrition has worsened since 2012 – driven by conflict, poverty, inequality, poor health, and climate change. While the 2020 GHI does not yet reflect the impacts of COVID-19, it shows that the situation is already worrying in many contexts and is likely to worsen in the years to come.

Policy Recommendations

To ensure the right to adequate and nutritious food for all and to end hunger by 2030, we must not only reshape our food systems to become fair, healthy, resilient, and environmentally friendly but also integrate them into a broader political effort to maximize the health of humans, animals, and our planet.

• Make food systems work better for people and the planet   
• Improve how food systems are governed   
• Expand social investments for resilience   
• Make emergency and long-term development interventions more equitable and sustainable   
• Strengthen international cooperation and regulations

Key findings with regard to India:

• India has the highest prevalence of wasted children under five years in the world, which reflects acute undernutrition.
• India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Index, lower than her neighbours such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88).
• The report put India under serious category with the score of 27.2.
• The child stunting rate in India was 37.4 %.
• The child wasting was at 17.3 %.
• The undernourishment rate of India was at 14% and child mortality at 3.7%.

As expected, the Government of India objected to the ranking. Truth hurts!