Committed to tackling challenges of undernourishment, child mortality: Rao Inderjit Singh

Government is committed towards tackling challenges of undernourishment, child mortality, stunting and wasting among children up to five years of age, planning minister Rao Inderjit Singh said in a reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"The government of India is committed towards tackling the challenges through some of the recent initiatives of various like Swasthaya Bharat Mission, Anaemia Mukt Bharat, POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, etc," he said. Minister Singh was replying to a question on India's global ranking at 102 on the Hunger Index.

According to the minister, the methodology cited in calculating the Global Hunger Index, 2019, it is based on the percentage of population that is undernourished, the percentage of children under five years old who suffer from wasting, the percentage of children under five years old who suffer from stunting and child mortality.


As per the last available National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted in year 2015-16, the prevalence of stunting in India is 38.4% and the prevalence of wasting is 21.0%.