Pic courtesy of borgenproject.org

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20: India’s placement of 101st on the Global Hunger Index for 2021 “sadly” matches the realities of the country, where hunger has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic breakout, according to Oxfam India.

The Indian Express reported that, India has dropped to 101st place on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) of 116 countries, down from 94th place in 2020, and is now behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

The Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development, in a strong reaction to the report, said it was “shocking” to learn that India was ranked lower in the Global Hunger Report 2021 based on an FAO estimate of the proportion of undernourished population, which was found to be “devoid of ground reality and facts and suffers from serious methodological issues.”

The report added, according to Oxfam India, the GHI data, which shows that India has slipped seven places in the hunger rankings to 101st, “sadly matches the reality of the nation, where hunger has exacerbated since the Covid-19 epidemic.”

Unfortunately, India’s undernutrition trend is not new, and it is backed on statistics from the government’s own National Family Health Survey (NHFS).

According to the statistics, a substantial number of Indian states actually reversed advances in child nutrition metrics between 2015 and 2019.

CEO of Oxfam India Amitabh Behar reportedly said that this loss of nutrition should be of worry since it has intergenerational implications — the newest data reveals that in some regions of India, children born between 2015 and 2019 are more malnourished than the preceding generation.

This year’s Union budget addressed India’s POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Plan for Holistic Nutrition) scheme, including additional funding for POSHAN 2.0.

However, the POSHAN Abhiyaan, which was started in 2017 to promote nutrition among children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers, has stalled due to insufficient financing as a consequence of cunning bundling with other health-budget initiatives and even poorer execution.

According to Oxfam India, just 0.57 percent of the current budget has been given to supporting the real POSHAN project, and the amount for child nutrition has fallen by a staggering 18.5% compared to 2020-21.

“There are significant negative repercussions to failing to address excessive levels of malnutrition.”

“In India both our adult and kid populations in India are at risk. For example, a quarter of our (teenage and middle-aged) women have a BMI that is lower than the worldwide average, and more than half of our women suffer from anaemia,” it said, reported The Indian Express.

According to the most recent set of NHFS data, a quarter of our (teenage and middle-aged) males have iron and calcium deficiencies, according to Varna Sri Raman, Lead, Research and Knowledge Building at Oxfam India.

The GHI study, produced in collaboration with the Irish charity organisation Concern Worldwide and the German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, described the degree of hunger in India as “alarming.”

India’s GHI score has likewise declined, falling from 38.8 in 2000 to a range of 28.8–27.5 between 2012 and 2021. India’s GHI score has likewise declined, falling from 38.8 in 2000 to a range of 28.8–27.5 between 2012 and 2021.

The GHI score is based on four indicators: malnutrition, child wasting (the proportion of children under the age of five who are wasted, i.e. have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition), child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition), and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).