India has been ranked 103rd out of 119 countries in the 2018 Global Hunger Index. “With a score of 31.1, India suffers from a level of hunger that is serious,” the report states.
“The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and national levels. The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a means to compare the levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to the areas of the world in greatest need of additional resources to eliminate hunger,” the official site of the Index defines it so.
According to the report, at least one in five Indian children are wasted, which means there weight is extremely less for their height.
Also read: World Bank Human Capital Index: India ranked 115, lower than Bangladesh, Nepal
The four main indicators used to calculate hunger levels in the report are: undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. The last three indicators use data for children under five. Child wasting reflects acute under-nutrition whereas child stunting reflects chronic-under nutrition.
Prevalence of stunting in children under five years stands at 38.4 per cent in 2018. Prevalence of wasting in children under five years has worsened from 20 per cent in 2005 to 21 per cent in 2018.