Prof Mithilesh Kumar Sinha
Finance Officer
Nagaland University, Lumami
The country’s serious hunger level is driven by high child malnutrition and underlines need for stronger commitment to the social sector. As per the report, India ranks below many of its neighbouring countries such as China (29th rank), Nepal (72), Myanmar (77), Sri Lank (84) and Bangladesh (88). It is ahead of Pakistan (106) and Afghanistan (107). India is last among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of emerging nations.
India’s overall GHI score has improved from 38.2 in 2000 to 31.4 in 2017, but it is among the worst performers in South Asia. At 31.4, India’s 2017 GHI score is at the high end of the serious category. With a GHI score that is near the high end of the serious category, it is obvious that a high GDP growth rate alone is no guarantee of food and nutrition security for India’s vast majority.
On India, the report said that the country’s top 1% own more than 50% of its wealth, India is the world’s second largest food producer, yet it is also home to the second highest population of under-nourished in the world. “Even with the massive scale up of national nutrition-focused programs in India, drought and structural deficiencies have left a large number of poor in India at risk of malnourishment in 2017.
India has reported an improvement, especially on child stunting. The report notes that the child stunting rate, while relatively high at 38.4%, has gone down over the year, from 61.9% in 1992. The rate of wasting in the country has increased—up from 20 per cent in 2005-2006 to 21 per cent in 2015-16. Only three other countries in the list (Djibouti, Sri Lanka, and South Sudan) have wasting above 20 per cent. The rate in India has not shown any substantial improvement over the past 25 years. While the rate of child stunting has reduced by 29 per cent since 2000, the figure remains high, at 38.4 per cent in 2015-16. GHI report says that 1 in 5 Indian children have low weight-for-height ratio.
Table: Proportion of Undernourished, Prevalence of wasting, stunting under 5S, under-5 mortality
India has developed and launched an action plan on ‘undernourishment free India’ by 2022. The plan shows stronger commitment and greater investments in tackling malnutrition in the coming years. Inequality in all its forms must be addressed now if we are to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger for everyone by 2030.
What is important is to see what is being done to improve the dismal ranking and score. With various economic indicators having taken a beating in the past year, will India be able to improve upon its Global Hunger Index ran The on-going efforts are expected to make significant changes in improving the existing situation in 2018?
