India Criticizes Global Hunger Index as a Flawed Measure

India Criticizes Global Hunger Index as a Flawed Measure

VoM News Desk | October 12, 2023 | 09:52 PM IST | Health, World | Follow on Google News

India Criticizes Global Hunger Index as a Flawed Measure

India Criticizes Global Hunger Index as a Flawed Measure

The Indian government has criticized the Global Hunger Index (GHI) as a flawed measure of hunger and stated that it does not accurately represent India’s actual position. In the recently released Global Hunger Report 2023, which is compiled by the Irish non-profit Concern Worldwide and Germany’s Welt Hunger Hilfe, India was ranked 111th out of 125 countries. The Indian government argued that the GHI suffers from methodological flaws and inaccuracies.

According to the government’s statement, three out of the four indicators used to calculate the GHI are related to children’s health and may not represent the entire population. The fourth and most significant indicator, the “Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population,” is based on an opinion poll conducted with a very small sample size of 3,000. The government emphasized that India has made efforts to address malnutrition challenges through initiatives like Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0).

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has developed and deployed the “Poshan Tracker” application, which is considered a significant governance tool. Several international organizations, including UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank, have recognized the Poshan Tracker as a valuable tool in the field of nutrition. The government noted that data uploaded to the Poshan Tracker for children under 5 years has consistently increased since April 2023, and the percentage of child wasting as seen on the tracker has consistently been below 7.2 percent, contrary to the value of 18.7 percent used in the Global Hunger Index 2023.

The government also argued that two of the GHI indicators, stunting and wasting, result from complex interactions of various factors such as sanitation, genetics, environment, and food intake utilization, apart from hunger. Furthermore, the government contended that there is limited evidence that child mortality is solely an outcome of hunger.

India also launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) to alleviate the economic hardships faced by the poor and needy due to the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

VoM News Desk

VoM News is an online web portal in jammu Kashmir offers regional, National & global news.