Global Hunger Index 2022

India ranks 107th out of 121 countries in the GHI 2022 rankings. With a score of 29.1, India has a level of hunger that is serious. India has slipped 6 positions from its 2021 rank of 101. According to the latest data, India has the highest child wasting rate of all countries covered in the GHI.

Yemen has ranked in the lowest position at 121, while the top of the list is dominated by European nations including Croatia, Estonia and Montenegro.

Among Asian nations, China and Kuwait have ranked the highest.

India’s Performance: Of the 121 countries on the GHI, India is ranked behind its neighbors Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64), and Bangladesh (84).

The GHI, which lists countries by ‘severity’, has given India a score of 29.1, which falls in the ‘serious’ category of hunger level

India’s Performance Over the Year: India has been recording decreasing GHI scores over the years. In 2000, it recorded an ‘alarming’ score of 38.8, which reduced to 28.2 by 2014. The country has started recording higher scores since then.

While India has been consistently recording lower values for the four indicators, it started going up in 2014 for undernourishment and the prevalence of wasting in children.

The proportion of undernourishment in the population went from 14.8 in 2014 to 16.3 in 2022, and the prevalence of wasting in children under five years jumped from 15.1 in 2014 to 19.3 in 2022.

India also witnessed an improvement in the other two indicators.

Stunning in children under five has reduced from 38.7 in 2014 to 35.5 in 2022, and under-five mortality reduced from 4.6 in 2014 to 3.3 in 2022.

 

What is Global Hunger Index (GHI)?

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels. GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators:

1)   Undernourishment: the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake.

2)   Child stunting: the share of children under age five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.

3)   Child wasting: the share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.

4)   Child mortality: the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.

Based on the values of the four indicators, a GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming.