India slipped to 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 of 116 countries and is behind neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In 2020, India was ranked 94th out of 107 countries. Eighteen countries, including China, Brazil and Kuwait, shared the top rank with a GHI score of less than five. The report, prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, termed the level of hunger in India "alarming". India's GHI score has also decelerated — from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.8 - 27.5 between 2012 and 2021. The GHI score is calculated on four indicators — undernourishment; child wasting (the share of children under the age of five who low weight for their height); child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age) and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five). The share of wasting among children in India rose from 17.1% between 1998-2002 to 17.3% between 2016-2020, according to the report. "People have been severely hit by COVID-19 and by pandemic related restrictions in India, the country with highest child wasting rate worldwide," the report said. However, India has shown improvement in other indicators such as the under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food, the report said.
Roland. Toronto.
