India’s low rank on nutritional index

The Global Hunger Index is an annual score ranking countries of the world on hunger levels.
It is prepared by NGO Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.
It is based on 4 indicators:
- Undernourishment- Share of the population with insufficient caloric intake.
- Child wasting – The share of children under the age of five who 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
- Child mortality – the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
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.

India has been ranked at 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2020

Which secures 102nd rank out of 117 countries in the 2019 index report.

The country’s score of 27.2 is the worst among BRICS countries, and inferior to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
India has the highest prevalence of wasted children under five years in the world, which reflects acute undernutrition.
Child stunting has actually improved significantly, from 54% in 2000 to less than 35% now.
Child wasting, on the other hand, has not improved in the last two decades, and is rather worse than it was decades ago.
India has improved in both child mortality rates and undernourishment, with about 14% of the total population which gets an insufficient caloric intake.
In the region of south, east and south-eastern Asia, the only countries which fare worse than India are Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and North Korea.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute three out of four rural Indians cannot afford a balanced, nutritious diet.
Globally, nearly 690 million people are undernourished which warns that the COVID-19 pandemic could have affected the progress made on reducing hunger and poverty.
The world is not on track to achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal – known as Zero Hunger for short – by 2030.

National policy should call for a radical transformation in the delivery of adequate nutrition especially to women and children, and pay adequate attention to achieving diet diversity through the PDS.
Strengthening the PDS, with a focus on women’s health, would lead to healthier pregnancies, and stronger supplemental nutrition under the ICDS scheme would give children a better chance at all-round development.
Necessary measures to be taken to bring the true benefits of the National Food Security Act to the unreached, not merely as hunger mitigation through cereals, but as nourishment through a diverse diet that includes fat, protein and micronutrients.
The right to food would be meaningless if it leaves a large section of Indians hungry, stunted and wasted.

Today Current Affairs Upsc Exam Syllabus & Previous Yearpaper.