India Must Rely More On NFHS 5 Than GHI 2021
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-10-19 07:19:18
About the Author
A controversy has erupted over the Global Hunger Index 2021 published last week. The latest GHI shows that Indiaâs position has slipped from 94 (out of 107 nations) in 2020 to 101 (116) in 2021. Based on the ranking, many assume that hunger has increased in India. But it is not so simple. The government has disputed the methodology used to assign the ranks and has said that the publishers have not relied on hard data. But the rankings are relative and if one delves deeper, one sees that while the composite index for India was 38.5 in 2000 (a high score shows more hunger), it went down slightly to 37.4 in 2006, to 28.8 in 2012 and is 27.5 in 2021. Hence, although India might appear to have slipped in the rankings, its index score has actually improved.
The global rankings are assigned taking into account a number of factors like prevalence of undernourishment (with one-third weightage), child mortality (one-third), child wasting (one-sixth) and child stunting (one-sixth). The National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) 5 for 2019-20 had showed that many states were indeed poor performers on many of these indicators. Despite the mid-day meal programme in schools and free ration to the poor during the pandemic, children are suffering as they do not get proper food. Child wasting and child stunting have reached alarming levels in some states and Union territories.
Without getting into the controversy over the GHI 2021, it is clear that India has to do a lot more to improve all the hunger indicators. While it may be wrong to say that hunger has increased in India over the years, it is also wrong to assume that all is good. Data culled from NFHS 5 has shown that India must focus on providing better nourishment to the children of its poor. The upgraded PM Poshan scheme is a step in the right direction. Since the national granaries are overflowing, the government must think of other ways to rectify the situation, perhaps by providing two meals per day in schools instead of one. That would go a long way in fighting undernourishment.
