India the lowest ranking Asian country at the Hunger Index 2019; ranked 102 out of 117

By: Talat Mohsin

The Hunger Index is out now, and it doesn’t look good for India. According to the report, India is on 102 nd rank out the total 117 countries. It’s been left behind by its counterparts Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

The GHI score reflects on the data provided by the countries from the years 2014 to 2019 and they were judged on four parameters- undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality rate under 5 years. The GHI scores the countries on a 100 point severity scale where zero is the place with no hunger and 100 is the worst. India’s score was 30.3.

Not only was India the lowest-ranked Asian countries, at some parameters it performed even worse than some of the Sub-Saharan African countries. The report says: “Because of its large population, India’s GHI indicator values have an outsized impact on the indicator values for the region. India’s child wasting rate is extremely high at 20.8%- the highest wasting rate of any country in this report.”

In 2000, India was at the 83 rd spot among 113 countries. After steady improvement, India’s rank began deteriorating from 2015 when it was on the 93 rd rank. Nepal and Bangladesh have performed exceedingly well in the Index. Even Pakistan, who was the only South Asian country behind India, has improved its rank.

Seventeen countries with a GHI of less than 5 tied for the first rank. They included the names of Belarus, Kuwait, Ukraine, Turkey, and Cuba. The report has stated that there’s no denying the fact that the world has come a long way since 2000, the world still has a lot to do to achieve its “zero hunger” target.