India ranking in Global Hunger Index not real picture: Govt to Parliament

The Centre told the Parliament on Wednesday that the Global Hunger Index (GHI) “does not reflect India’s true picture as it is a flawed measure of hunger”. The government’s response to a question on the efforts to address the low ranking of the country on the hunger index, was said the GHI should not be taken at face value as “it is neither appropriate nor representative of hunger prevalent in a country”.

According to the 2022 GHI rankings, India has slipped six places and ranked 107, out of 121 countries. The Centre had earlier called the report “misinformation”, and part of a “consistent effort’’ to “taint India’s image”. The GHI, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, non-government organisations from Ireland and Germany respectively, measures and tracks hunger at the country levels.

India is ranked behind its neighbours Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64), and Bangladesh (84). At 19.3%, India’s child wasting rate is the highest in the world, the report had suggested.


The WCD ministry however responded saying out of its four indicators, only one indicator, undernourishment, is directly related to hunger. The two indicators, namely, stunting and wasting are outcome of complex interactions of various other factors like sanitation, genetics, environment and utilisation of food intake apart from hunger which is taken as the causative/outcome factor for stunting and wasting in the GHI, it said.