Opinion: Measuring hunger across States
CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR 06TH SEPTEMBER, 2023
Opinion: Measuring hunger across States
Despite being the largest public distribution system in the world, India still grapples with food insecurity, hunger and child malnutrition. The Global Hunger Index 2022 ranked India 107 out of 121 countries.
The GHI provides a composite measurement and tracks undernourishment and hunger at the national level across three dimensions:
- calorie undernourishment,
- child malnutrition, and
- Under-five mortality.
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report of 2022, India is home to 224.3 million undernourished people.
More importantly, there are large disparities among states.
The GHI is computed using four indicators— 1) undernourishment, 2) child wasting, 3) stunting, and 4) under-five mortality rate.
The State Hunger Index is calculated using the same indicators except calorie undernourishment, which is replaced by body mass Index (BMI) undernourishment among the working-age population.
Data for stunting, wasting and mortality among children are sourced from the NFHS-5, while the BMI data is computed using NFHS-5 (2019-21) and Wave 1 of Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (2017-18). The calculation of SHI score involves combing the normalized values of the four indicators using the GHI technique. The range is between 0 and 100, with higher score indicating more hunger.
In SHI, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh scored 35, which place them in the 'alarming category.
Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odessa, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Maharashtra, and West Bengal scored above the national average (29).
Chandigarh scored 12 and Sikkim, Pondicherry and Kerala scored below 16. Hence, these states, along with Delhi, Manipur, Mizoram, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh, A&N, Tamil Nadu, fall under 'moderate hunger'.
All others which scored below the national average but above 20 are in 'serious hunger'.
No State falls under the 'low hunger' category.
Over the last half decade, India's GHI score has deteriorated primarily due to prevalence of calories undernourishment. Notably, no National Sample Survey round on nutritional intake has been conducted by the government since 2011-12.
The NFHS-5 indicated that 1/3rd of children less than five years of age are stunted and underweight, while every fifth child suffers from wasting.
• GHI is released by Concern Worldwide and Wealthungerlife
It is calculated using the data from the preceding five years.