The latest global hunger index (GHI) has painted India in a poor light. Prepared by European NGOs, the GHI 2022 has shown that the country has slipped further to the 107th position out of 121 countries from last year’s rank of 101. What is more ignominious is that the country is behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Last year, too, when its rank had fallen as compared to that in 2020, India slammed the report, saying that the basis of calculating the findings – prepared by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfe – was divorced from the ground reality and that the methodology used was unscientific. This time too instead of learning from past experience, the government has again come down heavily on the report.
India’s main objection is that three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population. But, GHI claims that it uses the data presented by India to the United Nations to measure the proportion of undernourishment in children under five through the indicators of undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. However, even if the Hunger Index is dismissed for its flawed metrics and faulty methodologies, we cannot shut our eyes to the prevalence of the scourge of hunger and the challenges in the fight to eradicate it, as revealed by other surveys. India’s performance on the UN Sustainable Development Goals that mandate zero hunger by 2030 is dismal. The government should work on these issues instead of promoting religious divisions. It is high time they focus on real issues and not on issues that only help to divert the attention of people from real issues.