New Delhi: As India slipped to 101st place out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021, the Ministry of Women and Child Development expressed its “shock”, arguing that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) found the estimate “nil”. Ground reality and facts”.
The FOA is a specialized agency of the United Nations. The ministry has further argued that its estimate is “ridden with serious methodological issues”.
These comments come after India was reported to lag behind its neighbors Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal in the Global Hunger Index. The report, jointly prepared by Irish-based aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfe, described hunger levels in India as ‘alarming’. Afghanistan is the only Asian country after India in this list.
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“It is surprising to learn that the Global Hunger Report 2021 has lowered India’s rank based on FAO estimates on the proportion of the malnourished population, found to be devoid of ground reality and facts and plagued by serious methodological issues. The publishing agencies of Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe have not done their due diligence before releasing the report,” the Ministry of Women and Child Development wrote in its response.
It further alleged that “the methodology used by the FAO is unscientific. They based their assessment on the results of a ‘four question’ opinion poll, which was conducted by Gallup over the telephone. There is no scientific method to measure undernutrition such as availability.
“Scientific measurement of undernutrition will require measurements of weight and height, while the method included here is based on a Gallup poll based on a pure telephonic estimate of the population,” the ministry wrote in its statement.
It further argued that the report completely disregards the government’s “massive effort” to ensure food security of the entire population during the COVID pandemic period.
According to the ministry, verifiable data is available on this. It claims that the opinion poll “there is not a single question as to whether the respondent has received any food support from the government or other sources. The representativeness of this opinion poll is also questionable to India and other countries.”
The Ministry of Women and Child Development also expressed its “surprise” from the FAO report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’, which states that the other four countries in the region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka “Not at all affected by the COVID-19 pandemic induced job/business loss and reduction in income levels, they have been able to improve their position on the indicator ‘proportion of undernourished population’ by 4.3%, 3.3%, 1.3%.” and 0.8% marks respectively during the period 2018-20 as compared to 2017-19.”
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In its statement, the ministry has highlighted several initiatives of the central government which it feels are “completely overlooked” in the Global Hunger Report 2021 and the FAO Report on ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’ Has been.
These include aid extended under schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna (PMGKAY), Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme (ANBS), Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna and PM KISAN Yojana along with other measures such as increase in MNREGA wages.
In 2020, India was ranked 94 out of 107 countries. This year it is ranked 101 out of 116 countries.
India’s GHI score has also dropped. It was 38.8 in the year 2000, which remained between 28.8 – 27.5 between 2012 and 2021. The GHI score is calculated on four indicators, which include undernourishment, malnutrition, child growth rate and child mortality.
According to the report, neighboring countries like Nepal (76th), Bangladesh (76th), Myanmar (71st) and Pakistan (92nd) are also in a worrying situation due to hunger. However, as per the report, all these countries fared better than India in providing food to their citizens.
Meanwhile, the ministry pointed to India’s position as an improvement in child mortality in 2021 as compared to the previous year. Quoting the report, “The position on two indicators, i.e., child wasting and child stunting, remained unchanged in 2021 as compared to 2020.”
(with PTI inputs)
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