Malnutrition challenge

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 has shown India slipping further to the 107th position out of 121 countries from last year’s rank of 101 and being behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Last year, too, when its rank had fallen as compared to that in 2020, India had slammed the report, saying that the basis of calculating the findings — prepared by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe — was divorced from ground reality and that the methodology used was unscientific. Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, too, was reported to have said that India should not take the drop in its ranking seriously as the methodology used for the exercise was ‘model-based’ and not survey-based. But GHI claims that it uses the data presented by India to the UN 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 we dismiss GHI for its flawed metrics, one 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. As per the Sustainable Development Goals 2021 report, India’s ranking fell to 120 from 117 among 193 countries since its performance on hunger, stunting, wastage, anaemia, drinking water and gender equality remained dismal. Even the domestic family health surveys do not project a rosy picture.

Empty stomachs and malnutrition lead to health and economic fallouts. The situation warrants strong remedial measures and a relook at the current policies. Though agriculture production in the country has risen by six times since Independence, storage, distribution and wastage issues hamper optimal use of foodgrains. Well-meaning schemes over the years are riddled with graft and leaks, preventing the food from reaching the needy beneficiaries. The decades-old Integrated Child Development Services and Midday Meal Scheme and the recent Poshan Abhiyaan designed to address hunger and malnourishment must be integrated holistically with health projects for better results.