High undernourishment, gender disparity: India’s nutrition trends align with hunger index findings

The Global Hunger Index for the year released in October ranked India at 111 out 125 countries. The report showed that India scored 28.7 on a scale of 100 with 0 the best and 100 the worst. Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, the nonprofit that publishes the index, categorised India’s hunger severity as “serious”.

For the third year in a row, the Indian government dismissed the findings of the index and questioned its methodology. In a video available on social medium Union Minister Smriti Irani, who heads the Women and Child Development Ministry that is responsible for the nutrition of women and children, says that there are indices “which do not project the India story and deliberately so”.

“Three thousand people in a country of 140 crore get a phone call from Gallup and they are asked: ‘Are you hungry?’” Irani says in the video.

The government claims that the index uses three indicators that measure the health of children and thus “cannot be representative of the entire population”. The fourth indicator, it alleges, is based on a survey conducted by Gallup World Poll that has a small sample size.

Irani adds that after traveling for several hours that day she was able to eat only at 10pm. “If you’ve called me at...

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