November 12, 2022

Why India continues to slide down the Global Hunger Index

topic:	Food Security
located:	India
editor:	Hanan Zaffar

With an inferior standing compared to all of its neighbouring countries except Afghanistan, India saw itself slide down to 107th place out of 121 countries in the latest Global Hunger Index (GHI) rankings. With a score of 29.1, which is categorised as “serious,” India witnessed a slip on the global index for the third consecutive year. 

Based on four indicators - undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality - GHI gives countries a hunger score on a scale from zero to 100, with zero representing no hunger, and 100 extreme hunger. India’s GHI score has increased from 28.3 in 2014 to 29.1 in the latest release, indicating the worsening condition of hunger issues in the country. 

In terms of individual indicators, India has seen both improvement and decline. On one hand, the prevalence of stunting in children under five years has decreased from 38.7 percent in 2014 to 35.5 percent in 2022, and the under-five mortality rate has decreased from 4.6 percent to 3.3 percent during the same time. However, on the other hand, the proportion of undernourished in the population has increased from 14.8  percent to 16.3  percent in the last eight years. 

The Indian government, on its part, rejected the GHI, calling it “an erroneous measure of hunger” and an attempt to “taint” India’s image while claiming that the ranks are based on an opinion poll. This, to a great extent, reflects not only the government’s attitude towards any criticism but also towards hunger and related health issues. This recalcitrance, experts say, has been one of the reasons for the persistence of the issue. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic has added to the worsening of hunger issues, it is not the root cause of the problem, which lies in the deteriorated economic and political conditions in the world's largest democracy. High rates of unemployment and inflation have burdened both the private sector and people's purchasing power, having a trickle-down effect on food security. 

With prevalent economic conditions and existing poverty in the country, many people depend on the government’s welfare schemes. One of the most prominent of these, which focuses on foodgrain distribution to the people in the country, has been the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) program. Apart from the food distribution system through Fair Price Shops or ration stores already in place, PMGKAY launched during the pandemic with the aim to provide food to the poor at free or very low cost.

However, such schemes have failed to combat the problem of hunger due to mismanagement, corruption, illegal diversions, the black market, and other issues.

According to estimates, more than 100 million people in the country are excluded from hunger alleviation schemes. The National Food Security Act (NFSA) states that the public distribution system (PDS) should cover two-thirds of the population counted in the last census, conducted in 2011. As a result of the postponement of the 2021 census, PDS coverage has fallen far short of the mandated 66 percent. 

Moreover, in 2014, over 44 million ration cards were deleted on the pretext of clearing out the bogus and duplicate ones. However political motivation and unspecified criteria were allegedly behind in the procedure, resulting in many not receiving their much-needed foodgrains. At the same time, many who deserve to be included in the scheme, such as those who lost employment during the pandemic, have not found themselves included yet, thus exacerbating the crisis.

Photo by Evgeny Nelmin

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