India has ranked 102 of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019. Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rice, Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania are among the top countries in the list. The level of hunger in India is "serious". The report has been prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe. In 2018, India was ranked 103 out of 119 countries. In 2000, the country was ranked 83 out of 113 countries.
The GHI score has also decelerated -- from 38.9 in 2005 to 32 in 2010 and then from 32 to 30.3 between 2010 and 2019. The GHI score is calculated on four indicators -- undernourishment, child wasting, the share of children under the age of five who are wasted, child stunting, children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition, and child mortality, the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
The share of wasting among children in India rose from 16.5 per cent in the 2008-2012 period to 20.8 per cent in 2014-2018, according to the report.
Just 9.6 per cent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a "minimum acceptable diet", it said.
Neighbouring countries like Nepal (73), Sri Lanka (66), Bangladesh (88), Myanmar (69) and Pakistan (94) are also in the 'serious' hunger category, but have fared better at feeding its citizens than India, according to the report. China (25) has moved to a 'low' severity category and Sri Lanka is in the 'moderate' severity category. 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.
The report also mentions the central government’s Swachh Bharat programme, saying open defecation is still being practised.
GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX: FULL LIST
- Belarus
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Chile
- Costa Rice
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Estonia
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Montenegro
- Romania
- Slovak Republic
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Kazakhstan
- North Macedonia
- Russian Federation
- Mexico
- Tunisia
- China
- Serbia
- Colombia
- Albania
Find complete list here
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