By Muslim Mirror Staff
India ranked 94th among 107 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2020 and it was shown in the “serious” hunger category.
Every other country in the subcontinent has fared better than India on the index that tracks undernourishment, child undernutrition and child mortality across the world.
While Bangladesh ranked 75, Myanmar and Pakistan were in the 78th and 88th position respectively. According to the report, Nepal and Sri Lanka were in 73rd and 64th position and were in the “moderate” hunger category, the report released on Friday said.
Last year, India’s rank was 102 out of 117 countries. In 2018, India stood at 103 among 119 countries.
The hunger level is calculated on four indicators: undernourishment, child wasting (children under five who have low weight for their height), child stunting (children under five who have low height for their age), and mortality rate for children under five.
According to the report published by Ireland’s humanitarian agency Concern Worldwide and Germany’s aid agency Welthungerhilfe, prevalence of wasting among children in India, which reflects acute undernutrition, has gone up in the period 2015-2019.
According to the report, 14 per cent of India’s population is undernourished, the rate of stunting among children under 5 is 37.4 per cent while the rate of wasting among children under 5 is 17.3 per cent. The under-five mortality rate is 3.7 per cent.
Sudan scored the same as India on the hunger index: 27.2.
Countries which have fared worse than India include North Korea, Rwanda, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Lesotho and Sierra Leone.