"Despite hunger becoming a massive problem in many countries of the world, India identified the crisis and worked on it from the very first day of the pandemic. The big experts are praising that India is providing free food grains to more than 80 crore people during the pandemic. The country is spending more than Rs 2 lakh crore on this. Our only aim is that none of our Indian brothers and sisters remains hungry", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this August to award a self-commendation to his regime that his government is not letting people sleep hungry. But, the reality is different, shocking, dreadful, and heartbreaking as India is fighting a big and real hunger crisis. 

A global report has revealed that the country is facing the worst hunger crisis and hundreds of thousands of people are battling the 'hungerdemic' and going to bed without food, which is a complete contrast to what the Prime Minister had said. What is more distressing is India's neighbours including Pakistan and Nepal are doing better in tackling the hunger crisis while children in India are starving for proper nutrition. The US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Germany-based Welthungerhilfe had released the Global Hunger Index 2021 on Thursday - October 14. 

In the index, India was ranked 101 out of 116 nations and the country has slipped seven spots in this year's ranking. In 2020, India was at 94 and while it has slipped, its neighbours are doing well than India. India fared only better than Afghanistan (103) in this year's ranking while all the neighbouring countries are ahead of India with Pakistan at 92, Nepal at 76, Bangladesh at 76, Myanmar at 71, and Sri Lanka at 65. According to the index, the nations found to be facing more acute hunger crises than India are African nations like Congo and Somalia, which is at the bottom of the index. 

The authors of the Global Health Index has said that India's hunger score has been deteriorating over the past two decades. While the GHI score was 38.8 in 2000, it was dropped to 37.4 in 2006, followed by 28.8 in 2011 and 27.5 in 2021. The score is calculated by using data of child mortality, undernourishment, and child wasting and child stunting. While child wasting refers to low weight-for-height where a child is thin for his/her height but not necessarily short, child stunting refers to low height-for-age, when a child is short for his/her age but not necessarily thin. 

As per the data from 2016-20, the authors have found that 17.3% of children in India are wasted while 34.7% of children under five are stunted. A data from 2019 had shown that 3.4% of children in India die before they turn five years. The report said, "The indicators included in the GHI formula reflect caloric deficiencies as well as poor nutrition. The undernourishment indicator captures the nutrition situation of the population as a whole, while the indicators specific to children reflect the nutrition status within a particularly vulnerable subset of the population for whom a lack of dietary energy, protein, and micronutrients leads to a high risk of illness, poor physical, and cognitive development, and death." 

The report has highlighted that three Cs had threatened to wipe out any progress that has been made against hunger in recent years and these three Cs are Conflict, Climate Change, and Covid-19. It added, "The COVID-19 pandemic, which has spiked in different parts of the world throughout 2020 and 2021, has shown just how vulnerable we are to global contagion and the associated health and economic consequences. As we struggle to contain the current pandemic, we must be realistic that this will not be the last." 

The report has further said that as the sequel of these three Cs as well as several issues such as poverty, inequality, unsustainable food systems, lack of investment in agriculture and rural development, inadequate safety nets, and poor governance had stalled the fight against hunger crisis. While India has been facing the worst hunger crisis as per the index, eighteen countries, including China, Brazil, and Kuwait have topped this year. India has a level of hunger that is serious and alarming. Global Health Index has been a tool to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, national, and regional levels.

The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a means to compare the levels of hunger between countries and regions and call attention to the areas of the world in greatest need of additional resources to eliminate hunger. However, the Indian government had slammed the Global Health Index report. By citing that the publishing agencies of the Global Hunger Report hadn't done their due diligence before releasing the report, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has on Friday called the report devoid of ground reality and facts.