India 107 in hunger index, govt in denial
The government’s response to the latest Global Hunger Index (GHI) rankings, which put India in 107th place out of 121 countries, is not very unpredictable. It has summarily rejected the rankings that show India faring much worse than some of our neighbouring countries. Afghanistan is the only Asian country that has fared worse than us.
The government’s usual response to any global survey, or study—for example, Press Freedom Index or Democracy index––in which India does poorly, is to reject the same by calling the methodology erroneous or the study inaccurate. But the slightest praise by a global agency, like the recent admirations for India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, and the government goes to town boasting about it. The government needs some consistency on this front.
As for the latest Global Hunger Index rankings, the government has pointed out several faults and shortcomings in the methodology. But the rankings have been there for long, and India has been doing badly since the start. It has remained one of the lowest-ranked countries for some time now. Rankings in recent years might have also been impacted by the distress caused by the pandemic in the lower strata of the population. It is no secret that the Indian poor have been the worst affected by the pandemic, and the government measures during that period were inadequate.
Recently, a World Bank report said that of the 71 million people pushed into poverty by the pandemic, 56 million were from India. Many agencies have pointed out in past India’s relatively poor handling of the pandemic, especially with regard to providing relief to the poor. Some estimates suggest India is home to the largest number (83 million) of people living below the poverty line. While there could be differences of opinion on the number of people below the poverty line in India, it is no secret that many people in India are forced to live in wretched conditions.
While the government—in the past and present—has been trying to address the issue through several schemes like food security programmes, direct cash transfers, etc., it has a long road to traverse before it can deny the existence of the problem with a straight face. Till then, it could do with some constructive criticism.