GHI AND UNDERNOURISHMENT

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Context

The value of a key indicator used in the Global Hunger Index is ‘inflated’ as only 9% of the anganwadi children were found to be undernourished, the Union Government said.

About

Global Hunger Index

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that measures and tracks hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI is calculated annually.
The index is based on four indicators — under-nourishment, wasting, stunting and under-five mortality.

India’s Performance

Of these, India’s performance is shown to deteriorate only for undernourishment, which is what the Government has challenged.
Many individual countries have also achieved reductions in hunger since 2000, but in some countries hunger persists or has even worsened.
According to FAO’s data, which is used in the Index, the prevalence of undernourishment in India rose from 14% in 2017-2019 to 15.3% in 2018-2020 which the Government has called exaggerated.
However, undernourishment and under-nutrition used as synonyms by the Government are treated as two different indicators by FAO and in the GHI.
The Government has also alleged that there has been a “selective approach adopted to deliberately lower India’s rank” by relying on higher values of indicators such as stunting and wasting from different datasets available.