India Ranks 102 Out of 117 On Global Hunger Index, Behind Bangladesh, Pakistan

Not Even 10% Infants Are ‘Properly Fed’. At 20.8%, India also has the highest child wasting rate among the countries ranked in the GHI Report.

India’s rank in 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) slipped to 102, which is considered to be a “serious” category. The index, which measures and tracks hunger at global, regional and national levels, features 117 countries.

India is the lowest-ranked among South Asian countries like its neighbours Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan and among Brics nations. This is a huge slip for the country which was ranked 93 in the index in 2015. India placed only 15 places above the country with the most severe hunger problem, which is Central Africa. Pakistan is at 94, Bangladesh at 88 and Nepal at 73 in this year’s GHI report.

The report particularly highlights how the young and vulnerable of India are facing the heat of hunger. It said that when it comes to infants aged six months to 23 months, only 9.6 percent of them in India are fed a “minimum acceptable diet”. This means that less than 10 percent of the infants in India are properly fed.

The child wasting rate in India stands at 20.8 percent which, according to the index, is the highest wasting rate of any country studied for the GHI report. The child stunting rate, at 37.9 percent, has also been termed as very high.

The GHI scores were calculated on four parameters: undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality.