By Irudhaya Jothi
Kolkata, Oct 15, 2022: India yet again holds a deplorable record of being a seriously hungry country.
Among 121 countries India stood 107 with a score of 29.1. It falls under the “serious” category in the hunger meter according to the Global Hunger Index 2022 (GHI).
World Food Day is observed annually on October 16 to highlight the millions of people worldwide who cannot afford a healthy diet and the need for regular access to nutritious food. The theme for 2022 is ‘Leave No One behind.’
Every year before world food day, the Global Hunger Index is released.
The index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthingerhilfe, designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
In comparison, 2021 Global Hunger Index, India ranked 101 out of 116 countries with a score of 27.5. It has a level of hunger that is serious.
Again, to the previous year, 2020 India was ranked 94 out of 107 countries with a score of 27.2. There is systematic regression in the area of starvation and hunger.
Progress toward ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030, already far too slow, is showing signs of stagnating or even being reversed.
According to GHI, India is pushed far behind the neighbouring poor countries such as Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh(84) and Pakistan(99). The only country behind India is war-torn Afghanistan at 109.
The Global Hunger Index 2022 points to a dire hunger situation fuelled by a toxic cocktail of the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasingly severe and protracted violent conflicts.
The GHI is determined using four indicators – the percentage of the population that is undernourished, and the percentage of children under five years suffering from wasting, stunting, and child mortality respectively. Data for the report is obtained from the United Nations and other agencies.
India’s child wastage rate (low weight for height), at 19.3% is worse than the previous years. Undernourishment which is the energy intake of food rose from 14.6 in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
Child stunting marginally decreased from 30.7% to 35.5% and child mortality from 4.6% to 3.3% but overall India performs poorly with a 29.1 score.
The theme of this year is based on appreciating the individuals who have contributed to creating sustainable surroundings where no one is left hungry.
The World Food Day 2022 is being marked in a year with multiple global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, climate change, rising prices and international tensions. All of this is affecting global food security. The Day is led by The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Pope Francis joins World Food Day 2022 with a letter to the Director of FAO in which he points out that hunger needs to be eradicated bearing in mind that people are not numbers and he calls for humanity and solidarity in international relations.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says, “An estimated 3.1 billion people worldwide do not have a healthy diet, and some 828 million people go hungry. Since 2019, the number of people experiencing hunger as a result of the pandemic has increased by more than 100 million”.
The UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021 revealed that around 931 million tonnes of food waste were generated in 2019, 61 per cent of which came from households, 26 per cent from food service and 13 per cent from retail.
A lot of food is being wasted is a worrying fact while millions go hungry.
Attention must be paid to reducing such criminal negligence in wasting food.
UNEP suggests that consumers can help reduce the amount of food lost in transport by buying locally grown produce, including at places like farmers’ markets. Supporting local farms also fosters food security and can help domestic agriculturalists adapt to climate change.
Growing one’s own food can help at the village and urban levels to dramatically reduce food waste.
Some of the south Saharan nations, Rwanda, Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan which are generally considered ‘starving nations’ perform slightly better than India.
The ‘Hunger Watch survey’ was conducted for two consecutive years by Right To Food Campaign India and the findings prove the alarm raised by GHI data.
A total of 79% of Indian households across 14 states which responded to the second “Hunger Watch” survey reported some form of “food insecurity” in 2021.
As much as 25% of the families said that they faced “severe food insecurity”, the survey was conducted between December 2021 and January 2022.
The survey was conducted on 6,697 households from 14 states – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and West Bengal.
Over 60% of those surveyed were worried about not having enough food and were unable to eat healthy or nutritious food or could eat only a few food items.
About 45% of the respondents reported that their household ran out of food in the month preceding the survey the report said. It also said that about 33% of the respondents said, they or someone in their household had to skip a meal.
The report said that 41% of households surveyed, reported that the nutritional quality of their diet had deteriorated as compared to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.
It is a known fact that the starving population in India comprise Scheduled Caste (Dalit), Scheduled Tribe (Adivasis) and Other Backward Castes (Religious minority groups).