India, the world’s largest foodgrain producer, also has the world’s largest hungry population, over 200 million. It ranks a poor 66th among 88
Ranks 66th in global hunger index
NEW DELHI: India, the world’s largest foodgrain producer, also has the world’s largest hungry population, over 200 million. It ranks a poor 66th among 88 developing and transitional countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI-2008), says a report by Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
GHI-2008 measured hunger on three fronts - proportion of people undernourished or calorie deficient; child malnutrition (underweight children under 5 years of age) and child mortality rates (malnutrition or disease deaths of children under 5 years).
The report found that hunger was a major threat in 33 countries, including India, owing to rising food prices. The fact that food importers outnumbered exporters implied many more countries were likely to suffer from higher prices.
Despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly 25 sub-Saharan countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo and Sudan, and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh, which ranked 70th. This was in spite of the fact that the per capita income in the African countries was much lower than India’s.
India’s slightly better performance over Bangladesh was because of higher agricultural productivity. But it fared worse than Bangladesh in child mortality.
Among the better-fed countries, Mauritius ranked 1st, followed by Jamaica, Moldova, Cuba and Peru. China ranked 15th, Thailand 23rd, Sri Lanka 39th, Nepal 57th and Pakistan 61st.
The figures were arrived at by making use of data from National Family Health Survey-3 and National Sample Survey Organisation.
India State Hunger Index (ISHI) was measured for the first time in this exercise. Among the 17 major Indian states, Madhya Pradesh had the most severe level of hunger, ‘extremely alarming’, followed by Jharkhand and Bihar. Hunger levels ranged from ‘serious’ to ‘extremely alarming’, with 12 states in the ‘alarming’ category. Not one state had ‘low hunger’ or ‘moderate hunger’. The best state, Punjab, and others like Kerala, Haryana and Assam, fell in the ‘serious’ bracket.
When compared to other countries in the index, Madhya Pradesh ranked 81st, level with Chad, and Punjab was 33rd, below Gabon, Honduras, and Vietnam. Maharashtra and Orissa were ranked 66th, equivalent to India while Gujarat ranked 69th with Haiti. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were 60th with Guinea.
Even states with high economic growth like Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra had high levels of hunger, while states with relatively lower economic growth, like Punjab, achieved a lower hunger level.
“Hunger and malnutrition are often rooted in poverty. Part of the solution rests with increasing investments in agriculture and poverty reduction programmes,” said Ashok Gulati, IFPRI director in Asia.
India’s poor performance was driven by its high child under-nutrition and calorie insufficiency. Underweight children accounted for the greatest contribution to the ISHI in most states, followed by calorie deficiency and child mortality. In states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu calorie deficiency contributed as much as child underweight.
p_vineeta@dnaindia.net 
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