New Delhi: In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 107th out of the 121 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2022 GHI scores.
With a score of 29.1, India has a level of hunger that is serious.
At 19.3 per cent, according to the latest data, India has the highest child wasting rate of all countries covered in the GHI.
This rate is higher than it was in 1998,1999, when it was 17.1 per cent.
Nepal is ranked higher at 81, Bangladesh at 84 and even Pakistan at 99.
India is ranked below African countries like Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda.
Since 2000, India has made substantial progress, but there are still areas of concern, particularly regarding child nutrition.
India's GHI score has decreased from a 2000 GHI score of 38.8 points, considered alarming, to a 2022 GHI score of 29.1, considered serious.
India's proportion of undernourished in the population is considered to be at a medium level, and its under-five child mortality rate is considered low.
While child stunting has seen a significant decrease -- from 54.2 per cent in 1998,1999 to 35.5 per cent in 2019, 2021 -- it is still considered very high.
The opposition party leaders are asking the Narendra Modi government to take immediate note of the alarming situation.
"When will the Hon'ble PM address real issues like malnutrition, hunger, and stunting and wasting among children? 22.4 crore people in India are considered undernourished. India's rank in the Global Hunger Index is near the bottom -- 107 out of 121 countries", Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, wrote on Twitter.
"Dangerous, sharp slide of India on global hunger index since 2014. Modi govt is disastrous for India. Low food stocks barely over minimum buffer prices. Govt must take responsibility for this era of darkness India has been brought to in 8.5 years. Enough of PR, spin and lies", CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury said.
The Modi government is yet to respond to the latest report. The government had rejected the 2021 GHI report calling it, shocking, devoid of ground reality, untrue and having based on “incorrect” methodology.
"The publishing agencies of the Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have not done their due diligence before releasing the report," the government had said in a statement released in 2021.
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