News: The Global Hunger Index 2020 report has been released.
Facts:
- About the index: It is an annual report jointly published by Ireland’s Concern Worldwide and Germany’s Welthungerhilfe.
- Aim: To measure and track hunger at the global, regional and country levels.
- Indicators: The four indicators for the index are:
- Undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient caloric intake),
- child wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute undernutrition)
- child stunting (low height for age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and
- Child mortality rate under 5 years of age.
- Based on the values of the four indicators, the GHI determines hunger on a 100-point scale where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming.
Key Takeaways:
- India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Index lower than neighbours such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88).
- Child stunting: India has improved significantly from 54% in 2000 to less than 35% now.
- Child wasting: India’s child wasting rate is at around 17.3%.
- Child mortality rates: India has improved in child mortality rates which is now at 3.7%
- Undernourishment: India has about 14% of the total population which gets an insufficient caloric intake.
