NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said it was shocking to see that the Global Hunger Report 2021 has lowered India’s rank and questioned the methodology. “It is shocking to find that the Global Hunger Report has lowered the rank of India on the basis of FAO estimate on proportion of undernourished population, which is found to be devoid of ground reality and facts and suffers from serious methodological issues,” said the Union Ministry of Woman and Child Development.
As per the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, India has slipped to 101st among 116 countries from its 2020 ranking of 94. India is behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. With a score of 27.5, India has a level of hunger that is serious, said the report. In 2020, India was ranked 94th of 107 countries.
The ministry said the publishing agencies of the report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have not done due diligence before releasing it. They said the report disregards the Centre’s efforts to ensure food security of the entire population during the pandemic period, verifiable data on which are available.
The ministry said as per this report, India’s position on the first indicator, child mortality, has improved. Position on two indicators, i.e., child wasting and child stunting, has remained unchanged. Explaining further, the ministry said the position on the indicator undernourishment has deteriorated with an increase of 1.3% points in 2021 over 2020 and FAO is the data source for this indicator of the report 2021.
The Centre said that the fall in India’s ranking can be attributed to the latest estimates reported by FAO in its report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’ on the proportion of people who could not have their minimum dietary energy requirement fulfilled during the last one year, which covered the Covid-19 pandemic period.
Lalu joins Congress leaders in attacking Centre over report
New Delhi: Congress leader and MP in Rajya Sabha Kapil Sibal and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav have lashed out at the Central government after India slipped to 101 in the Global Hunger Index 2021. Sibal tweeted, “Congratulations Modiji for eradicating 1 poverty, 2 hunger, 3 making India a global power, 4 for our digital economy 5 so much more. Global Hunger index 2020: India ranked 94. 2021: India ranked 101. Behind Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.”
Lalu said that the anti-poor policies of the government have resulted in a fall in India’s ranking. “Due to anti-poor policies of the Central government, India has got 101 ranking out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index. At this rate, India will now have to compete with a country like Somalia. Shameful,” he tweeted. Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala also hit out at the Modi government. “If the citizens of the country cannot even eat enough food, then there is a direct question on the credibility and efficiency of the ‘emperor’ sitting on the throne of power? Will anyone listen to this,” said Surjewala.