Why India trails in Global Hunger Index

 

In news:

• Global Hunger Index 2019 launched recently

 

 

Important facts:

• In Global Hunger Index report, India has the highest percentage of children who suffer from acute undernutrition.
• The Global Hunger Index report, prepared and published jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfewas.
• Parameters: It is calculated on the basis of four indicators that are - child mortality, undernourishment, child wasting (weight for age) and child stunting. 
• The major focus of the index was on the relation between climate change and hunger.
• The report also explains the impact of extreme weather on food production and food security.
• The report also took note of open defecation in India as an impacting factor for health. It pointed out that as of 2015–2016, 90% of Indian households used an improved drinking water source while 39% of households had no sanitation facilities.

 

 

Key highlights of the index:

 

What is India’s score relative to those of the others?

•  India ranked 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2019 that is placed at much below to its South Asian neighbours such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan.
• The GHI report pointed out that "India is suffering from a serious hunger problem".
• The Global Hunger Index measures countries on a 100 points scale, where a score of 0 (zero) is considered as best performing countries and  100 is the worst.
• As per the report prepared by Welt Hunger Life, India is one of the 45 countries where hunger causes serious crisis.
• In India, only 9.6% of all children between 6 to 23 months of age are given a minimum acceptable diet.
• As per the report, the child wasting rate is the highest (20.8%) in the world while the child stunting rate is 37.9% in India.
• India scores 30.3 on the list and indicates that the level of hunger is serious in the country.
• GHI highlights that the country has improved in some indicators such as under-5 mortality rates and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food.

 

 

India's performance over the Years since 2014:

Year	Ranking	Total Countries
2014	55	76
2015	80	117
2016	97	118
2017	100	119
2018	103	119
2019	102	117

 

 

Why is India ranked so low on GHI?

• With an overall score of 30.3, India finds itself sandwiched between Niger (score 30.2, rank 101) and Sierra Leone (score 30.4, rank 103).
•  In 2000, India’s score was 38.8 and its hunger level was in the “alarming” category. Since then, India has steadily improved on most counts to reduce its score and is now slotted in the” “serious” category.
• The pace of India’s improvement has been relatively slow. Nothing illustrates this better than the trajectory of Niger and Sierra Leone, which in 2000 had scores of 52.1 and 53.6, respectively, and found themselves in the “extremely alarming” category of hunger — and were much worse off than India.
• So, even though India has improved its score, many others have done more and that explains why despite achieving relatively fast economic growth since 2000, India has not been able to make commensurate strides in reducing hunger.

 

 

What are the reasons for which India’s improvements have been slow?

• There is one category — Child Wasting, that is, children with low weight for their age — where India has worsened.
• The percentage of children under the age of 5 years suffering from wasting has gone up from 16.5 in 2010 to 20.8 now.
• Wasting is indicative of acute undernutrition and India is the worst among all countries on this parameter.
• India’s child wasting rate is extremely high at 20.8 percent — the highest wasting rate of any country in this report for which data or estimates were available.
• Its child stunting rate, 37.9 percent, is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance.
•  In India, just 9.6 percent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet.

 

 

Global Findings:

• Among BRICS countries, Brazil stood at 18, Russia at 22, China at 25 and South Africa at 60.
• China is now in the low severity category, while Sri Lanka is within the moderate severity level. Even North Korea was at 92nd.
• The report highlights that the climate crisis is bringing alarming levels of hunger in the world.
• Some countries that are facing alarming situation are – Yemen, Chad, Madagascar and Zambia.
• However, there are nine countries that are categorized in a worse situation. These countries are – the Central African Republic, Yemen, Malaysia, Madagascar, Venezuela, Lebanon, Mauritania, Jordan and Oman
• The report found that 785 million people were suffering from hunger while 822 million people were found affected with hunger in 2018.
• GHI highlights that among the 117 countries ranked, 47 countries are in ‘serious’ and ‘alarming’ hunger levels and one in ‘critically alarming’.

 

 

What is the Global Hunger Index?

• The GHI has been brought out almost every year by Welthungerhilfe (lately in partnerships with Concern Worldwide) since 2000
•  this year’s report is the 14th one.
• A low score gets a country a higher ranking and implies a better performance.
• The reason for mapping hunger is to ensure that the world achieves “Zero Hunger by 2030” — one of the Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations.
• It is for this reason that GHI scores are not calculated for certain high-income countries.
• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
•  The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) calculates GHI scores each year to assess progress, or the lack thereof, in combating hunger.
• The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger. 
•  All 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—including Goal 2, ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture—should be achieved by 2030. 
• Other global initiatives, like Compact2025, have set the goal of ending hunger worldwide by 2025. 

 

 

How does GHI measure hunger?

For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:

• Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
•  Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height);
• Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age);
• Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition.
• Each country’s data are standardised on a 100-point scale and a final score is calculated after giving 33.33% weight each to components 1 and 4, and giving 16.66% weight each to components 2 and 3.
• Countries scoring less than or equal to 9.9 are slotted in the “low” category of hunger, while those scoring between 20 and 34.9 are in the “serious” category and those scoring above 50 are in the “extremely alarming” category.

 

 

Causes of hunger in India:

 

 

Causes of Hunger in India

• Poverty: Poverty alone does not lead to malnutrition, but it seriously affects the availability of adequate amounts of nutritious food for the most vulnerable populations. Over 90 percent of malnourished people live in developing countries.
• Lack of safe drinking water: Water is synonymous with life. Lack of potable water, poor sanitation, and dangerous hygiene practices increase vulnerability to infectious and water-borne diseases, which are direct causes of acute malnutrition.
• Lack of access to food: Most major food and nutrition crises do not occur because of a lack of food, but rather because people are too poor to obtain enough food. Non-availability of food in markets, difficult access to markets due to lack of transportation, and insufficient financial resources are all factors contributing to the food insecurity of the most vulnerable populations. 
• Seasonal migration:  Seasonal migrations have long been a livelihood strategy for the poorest households in India, as a mean to access food and money through casual labour. Children and women are the most affected, suffering from deprivation during migrations impacting their health condition. 
• Conflict:  Conflicts have a direct impact on food security, drastically compromising access to food. Often forced to flee as violence escalates, people uprooted by conflict lose access to their farms and businesses, or other means of local food production and markets. Abandoned fields and farms no longer provide food to broader distribution circuits. 
• Disease:  Certain illnesses and infections, such as tuberculosis, measles, and diarrhoea are directly linked to acute malnutrition. A combination of disease and malnutrition weakens the metabolism creating a vicious cycle of infection and undernourishment, leading to vulnerability to illness.
• Climate Change: The effects of climate change are often dramatic, devastating areas which are already vulnerable. Infrastructure is damaged or destroyed; diseases spread quickly; people can no longer grow crops or raise livestock.

 

 

Impact of climate change on crop:

• It can lead to production of toxins on crops and worsen the nutritional value of cultivated food.
•  climate change can reduce the concentrations of protein, zinc, and iron in crops
• As a result, by 2050 an estimated additional 175 million people could be deficient in zinc and an additional 122 million people could experience protein deficiencies.
• Ever-rising emissions have pushed average global temperatures to 1°C above pre-industrial levels
• Climate change is affecting the global food system in ways that increase the threats to those who currently already suffer from hunger and undernutrition.

 

 

Government initiatives to tackle hunger in India:

• National Nutrition Mission:

• Malnutrition as characterized by under-nutrition, over-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies has a negative impact on the socio-economic development of any nation.
• Malnutrition erodes social and economic gains made and put countries in a vicious cycle of poor nutritional status, high disease burden and increased poverty.
• Malnutrition has a significant inter-generational effect and must be addressed in its entirety for any meaningful development to take place. 

       

  Objective:
The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies. It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and States/UTs to achieve the targeted goals.

 

• POSHAN Abhiyan:

• POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) was launched by the government on March 8, 2018.
• The Abhiyaan targets to reduce stunting, undernutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.
• The target of the mission is to bring down stunting among children in the age group 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to ensure service delivery and interventions by use of technology, behavioural change through convergence and lays-down specific targets to be achieved across different monitoring parameters.
• Under the Abhiyaan, Swasth Bharat Preraks will be deployed one in each district for coordinating with district officials and enabling fast and efficient execution of the Abhiyaan across the country. Swasth Bharat Preraks would function as catalyst for fast tracking the implementation of the Abhiyaan.
• Poshan Abhiyaan focuses on reducing stunting, under-nutrition and anaemia in women and adolescents through direct cash transfers is a massive step towards eradicating malnutrition

 

 

• The Mid Day Meal Scheme for school children 1995: The Midday Meal Scheme comes under the HRD Ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy. Launched in the year 1995 as a centrally sponsored scheme, it provides that every child within the age group of six to fourteen years studying in classes I to VIII who enrolls and attends the school, shall be provided hot cooked meal having nutritional standards of 450 calories and 12 gm of protein for primary (I- V class) and 700 calories and 20 gm protein for upper primary (VI-VIII class), free of charge every day except on school holidays.

 

• The National Plan of Action on Nutrition (NPAN) 1995 was laid down focusing on reducing under nutrition which entails a Multi-sectoral approach for accelerated action on determinants of malnutrition.

 

 

• National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) has been published by NITI Aayog in 2017 with the following objectives:

 

           Objectives and targets:

• 3 point percentage / year reduction in underweight prevalence in children (0-3 years) by 2022 from NFHS-4 levels
• 1/3rd reduction in anaemia in children, adolescent & Women of Reproductive Age (WRA)

• National Food Security Act 2013, as the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight remains high.

 

About National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 The NFSA aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas). It converts existing food security programmes of the Central Government into legal entitlements. It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services scheme and the Public Distribution System. Grains like wheat, rice and coarse grain will be distributed at the subsidized price of 3 Rs. 3, Rs. 2 and Rs. 1. Pregnant women and lactating mothers and children are entitled to get meals under the prescribed nutrition by MDM and ICDS. NFSA 2013 will provide high nutrition food to the children from age group of 6 months to 14 years. Pregnant women and lactating mothers will be entitled to get maternity benefit of not less than Rs. 6,000

 

 

 

Way ahead:

• Reinforced with a new set of national-level policies or guidelines around the usage of a community-based approach of addressing acute malnutrition in India.
• Prevention is important when it comes to improving maternal and child health outcomes, but we also need to focus on the existing burden of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the country that has not changed in the last decade.
• Provide impetus on aspects such as compulsory breastfeeding, adequate complementary feeding, immunization practices, hidden hunger (micronutrients) among malnourished women which leads to babies being born with low birth weight (LBW) .
• For example, a single bout of diarrhea can push an LBW baby towards acute malnutrition), energy-dense nutritious food (necessary for recovery of SAM children), and access to clean water and sanitation (WASH) for families.

 

 

Source)

thehindu.com/news/national/global-hunger-index-2019-india-ranked-lower-than-nepal-pakistan-bangladesh/article29714429.ece