Understanding The Global Hunger Index (UPSC Current Affairs)

Relevance: GS2 - Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, and Human Resources. Issues relating to poverty and hunger; Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

(Source: The Hindu)

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Why in the news?

• Recently, the Global Hunger Index for the year 2022 has been released. In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 107th out of 121 countries with a score of 29.1.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development rejected the Global Hunger Index (GHI), which ranked India 107th out of 121 countries, for the second time in two years on Saturday.
• India received a score of 29.1 out of 100 (with 0 indicating no hunger), trailing Sri Lanka (66), Myanmar (71), Nepal (81) and Bangladesh (84).
• It called the index "an erroneous measure of hunger." It also incorrectly stated that the Index was based on an opinion poll.

What is the Global Hunger Index?

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for measuring and tracking hunger at the global, regional, and national levels.
• The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale, with zero indicating no hunger and 100 indicating severe hunger.
• The GHI is being prepared by the European NGOs Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. It is co-produced by the non-profit organisation Welthungerhilfe from Germany and Concern Worldwide from Ireland.
• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is an annual peer-reviewed report that aims to "completely measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels."
• The report's authors mostly refer to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2), which aims to achieve "Zero Hunger" by 2030.
• The GHI is an annual report, and each set of GHI scores is based on data from a 5-year period. The GHI scores for 2022 are based on data from 2017 to 2021.

Four Component Indicators

• Undernourishment
• Child stunting
• Child wasting
• Child mortality

India's Performance in the Four Indicators

• Undernourishment: This has also increased in the country, rising from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
• Child Wasting: At 19.3%, India's child wasting rate (low weight for height) is higher than in 2014 (15.1%) and even in 2000 (17.15%).
• Child stunting and Child mortality have improved in India.
  • Between 2014 and 2022, child stunting (low height for age) fell from 38.7% to 35.5%.
  • In the same time period, child mortality (mortality rate under the age of five) fell from 4.6% to 3.3%.

What is the significance of GHI?

• The GHI is a metric for measuring the effects of development in the area of hunger.
• In order to assess how well government initiatives and other interventions perform in enhancing outcomes, it is critical to distinguish between policy actions and their results.

Issues

• The prevalence of undernourishment, which is an indicator of the population's proportion that experiences chronic dietary energy intake insufficiency, increased in the nation from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
• Out of the 828 million undernourished individuals worldwide, 224.3 million people live in India.
• India's GHI score dropped from 38.8 points in 2000, regarded as alarming, to 29.1 points in 2022, considered serious.

What are the allegations?

• According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the report lowers India's ranking based on estimates of the Proportion of the Undernourished (PoU) population.
• It elaborates that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate is based on the 'Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)' survey module conducted using the Gallup World Poll, with a sample size of 3,000 respondents being asked eight questions.
• It stated that the data represented a negligible proportion for a country the size of India.
• It refuted the report's assertions that India's per capita dietary energy supply has increased year on year due to increased production of major agricultural commodities in the country over the years.
• The GHI website provides important clarifications on the government's concerns. It explains that, while FAO uses a suite of food security indicators, including two important indicators:
  • prevalence of undernourishment and
  • prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity based on FIES.

• The GHI only uses the PoU obtained through food balance sheets based on data reported by member countries, including India.
• A food balance sheet provides a comprehensive picture of a country's food supply pattern over a specified time period. It specifies the source of the supply and how it is used in each food category.

Why use three child-specific indicators?

• The website explains why the GHI uses three child-specific indicators out of four to calculate hunger for a country's population:
• "By combining the proportion of undernourished in the population (1/3 of the GHI score) with the indicators relating to children under age five (2/3 of the GHI score), the GHI ensures that both the food supply situation of the population as a whole and the effects of inadequate nutrition within a particularly vulnerable subset of the population are considered."
• All four indicators used in the calculation of global hunger are recognised by the international community, including India, and used for measuring progress toward the UN SDGs.

Why the controversy?

• According to the Ministry, the report is not only out of touch with reality but also chooses to ignore the Central Government's food security efforts, particularly during the pandemic.
• The Union Cabinet, through the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna (PM-GKAY), provided an additional five kg ration per person each month in addition to their normal foodgrain quota under the National Food Security Act. It was recently extended until December 2022.
• The schemes were beneficial but not sufficient because of unemployment, rising food prices, and stagnant wage levels, people are not eating as much as they should.
• It is important to note that the ranking cannot be used for year-to-year comparisons because countries with varying economic conditions are assessed each year.
• It is more important to consider the position and the indicator analysis than the comparative year-on-year rank.
• The issue isn't whether the rank has risen or fallen; the issue is that the rank is low.

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Some Important FAQs

MCQs

Question: Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Annapurna Scheme are associated with which of the following?

(a) Public distribution system

(b) Mid-day meal

(c) Special nutrition programme

(d) None of the above