Is our country really as hungry as they say? -Tanay Sukumar and Pragya Srivastava

-Livemint.com

India has slid down the Global Hunger Index (GHI) this year, falling behind its South Asian neighbours to rank 101 out of 116 countries. The government has dismissed the report’s ‘unscientific’ methodology. Mint explains the numbers:

* What’s the controversy surrounding GHI?

The hunger index ranks countries on four indicators: the share of undernourished population, stunting and wasting among children, and child mortality. India’s overall score has improved since 2012, the last year the data is comparable with, but its rank has dropped. India’s rank dropped due to poorerscores on under-5wasting (from 15.1% in 2012 to 17.3% now) and undernourished Indians (from 15% to 15.3%). The government says the undernourishment score is based on a “four-question" telephonic opinion poll conducted by Gallup, and does not reflect the ground reality. But the report’s publishers deny this.

* Is undernourishment score based on a poll?

That particular number in the GHI is based on a 2021 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report. Indeed, some FAO data relies on Gallup polls, but undernourishment isn’t one of them. This data is based on several indicators, one being the FAO’s “food balance sheets" that estimate the share of population with inadequate access to calories. The government is peeved that the scores do not reflect the welfare work done during the pandemic. But the GHI undernourishment figure reflects the yearly average for 2018-20, and stunting and wasting figures are for 2016-20.

* Are there any limitations with the index?

Yes. First, FAO’s undernourishment data uses a uniform calorie benchmark, which experts say has its own problems. Second, the scores are not comparable across years, so there’s no way of knowing whether India did better or worse in 2021. Third, it will be years before we know India’s true score for 2021 to compare with other countries.

Please click here to read more.