Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022

Context

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 has ranked India at 107th out of 121 countries and a score of 29.1 puts India in the "serious" category.

India Specific Rank and score: India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the GHI and a score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category.

India’s child wasting rate at 19.3%, is worse than earlier levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) and 2000 (17.15) and is the highest for any country in the world. It drives up the South Asian region’s average due to India’s large population.
Prevalence of undernourishment has also risen in India from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021. Thus, 224.3 million people in India are considered undernourished.

Improvement in: Child stunting has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022.

Child mortality has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.

India and the neighborhood: India fares worse (rank lower) than all South Asian countries- Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99); except war-torn Afghanistan (109).
Global Scenario: Top rankings in GHI are dominated by European nations including Croatia, Estonia, and Montenegro etc.

In the GHI 2021, India had slipped to 101st position of 116 countries (from its 94th position in 2020).
The GHI is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels, reflecting multiple dimensions of hunger over time.

The GHI is published annually as part of a partnership between Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest aid and humanitarian agency and Welthungerhilfe.
The first GHI report was published in 2006.

The GHI score of each country is calculated based on a formula combining four indicators that together capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.

Undernourishment: the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake.
Child stunting: the share of children under age five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.
Child wasting: the share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.
Child mortality: the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.