Global Hunger Index 2022- India in ‘Serious’ Category at Rank 107

Global Hunger Index 2022- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges-
  • Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.

Global Hunger Index 2022 in News

• Recently, India has ranked 107th out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022.
• India’s performance in Global Hunger Index 2022 went down from the 101st position the previous year’s Global Hunger Index 2021.

Key Findings of Global Hunger Index 2022

• Yemen has ranked in the lowest position at 121, while the top of the list is dominated by European nations including Croatia, Estonia and Montenegro.
  • Among Asian nations, China and Kuwait have ranked the highest.
• India’s Performance: Of the 121 countries on the GHI, India is ranked behind its neighbours Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64), and Bangladesh (84).
  • The GHI, which lists countries by ‘severity’, has given India a score of 29.1, which falls in the ‘serious’ category of hunger level.
• India’s Performance Over the Year: India has been recording decreasing GHI scores over the years. In 2000, it recorded an ‘alarming’ score of 38.8, which reduced to 28.2 by 2014. The country has started recording higher scores since then.
  • While India has been consistently recording lower values for the four indicators, it started going up in 2014 for undernourishment and the prevalence of wasting in children.
  • The proportion of undernourishment in the population went from 14.8 in 2014 to 16.3 in 2022, and the prevalence of wasting in children under five years jumped from 15.1 in 2014 to 19.3 in 2022.
  • India also witnessed an improvement in the other two indicators.
  • Stunning in children under five has reduced from 38.7 in 2014 to 35.5 in 2022, and under-five mortality reduced from 4.6 in 2014 to 3.3 in 2022.

What is Global Hunger Index?

• About: Global Hunger Index has been brought out almost every year since 2000 to map situation of hunger in various countries.
  • Global Hunger Index 2022 is the 15^th in the series of report.
• Publishing Organizations: Global Hunger Index is Jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerlife.
• Mandate: The reason for mapping hunger is to ensure that the world achieves “Zero Hunger by 2030”- one of the Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations.
  • It is for this reason that GHI scores are not calculated for certain high-income countries.
• Parameters Used: Global Hunger Index tracks the performance of different countries on four key parameters.
  • These parameters capture multiple dimensions- such a deficiency of micronutrients- of hunger, thus providing a far more comprehensive measure of hunger.

How Global Hunger Index 2022 is calculated?

Indicators used

The GHI looks at four main indicators:

• Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient);
• Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height);
• Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age);
• Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition.

Ranking of Countries on Global Hunger Index (GHI)

• Weightage of Indicators: Each country’s data are standardised on a 100-point scale and a final score is calculated after giving 33.33% weight each to Indicators 1 and 4, and giving 16.66% weight each to Indicators 2 and 3.
• Categorization: Countries scoring less than or equal to 9.9 are slotted in the “low” category of hunger, while those scoring between 20 and 34.9 are in the “serious” category and those scoring above 50 are in the “extremely alarming” category.

Extreme Poverty Reduced in India, As Per the New World Bank Report

Extreme Poverty Reduced in India, As Per the New World Bank Report

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