Of the 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index, India is now ranked below its neighbours at 107

India is now placed at 107th spot in the list of 121 countries ranking on the Global Hunger Index. This is enough to set the alarm bells ringing for the Indian government which is high on its achievements and does not tire of numerating its achievement. However, the facts are different from the projected image. Despite tall claims, the reality for people living on the fringe is getting from bad to worse. What is worse is that even less developed countries like Nepal and Pakistan and Bangladesh are placed higher than India. This is an indication that the lopsided development taking place in India has no meaning for the downtrodden. In the Global Hunger Index (GHI) in 2022, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, India has gone down to the 107th spot from 101. The GHI measures and tracks hunger at the global levels. Of the 121 countries on the GHI, India is ranked below its neighbours; Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64), and Bangladesh (84). There is no merit in the argument that corona led to malnutrition as the effect of coronavirus can be simply ignored as its footprint was similar in the Indian subcontinent.

The GHI has pegged India as a country with a serious hunger problem. The GHI has given India a score of 29.1, which falls in the 'serious' category of hunger level. The list, ranks Yemen in the lowest position at 121. The GHI score is calculated on four indicators - undernourishment; child wasting which is the share of children under age five who have low weight for their height and are put in the category of acute under-nutrition; child stunting, children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic under-nutrition; and child mortality under the age of five. India has been increasing scores over the years. The country has continuously slipped on GHI during the present BJP regime. It started going up in 2014 for undernourishment and the prevalence of wasting in children. The proportion of undernourishment in the population went from 14.8 in 2014 to 16.3 in 2022, and the prevalence of wasting in children under five years increased from 15.1 in 2014 to 19.3 in 2022. India's child-wasting rate is the highest in the world. The saving grace is that  stunting in children under five has reduced from 38.7 in 2014 to 35.5 in 2022, and under-five mortality reduced from 4.6 in 2014 to 3.3 in 2022.