India on Global Hunger Index ranking: 'Erroneous, suffers from serious methodological issues'

India on Saturday rejected the Global Hunger Index 2022 ranking, saying the index suffers from serious methodological issues. The Central government also said that the ranking is an "erroneous measure of hunger". India's ranking at 107 in the Global Hunger Index is part of a consistent effort to taint the country's image as "a nation that does not fulfill the food security and nutritional requirements of its population”, the Central government said on Saturday.

India has been ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2022 with its child wasting rate at 19.3 per cent, being the highest in the world.

In a statement, the Women and Child Development Ministry said the matter was taken up with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) not to use such estimates based on FIES (Food Insecurity Experience Scale) survey module data in July 2022 as the statistical output of the same will not be based on merit.

The ministry said, "Though an assurance was forthcoming that there will be further engagement on this issue, the publication of the Global Hunger Index report irrespective of such factual considerations is regrettable.”

India also said that misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index.

The government said, "A consistent effort is yet again visible to taint India's image as a nation that does not fulfill the food security and nutritional requirements of its population. Misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index."

"The Global Hunger Report 2022 released by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, Non-Government Organisations from Ireland and Germany respectively, has ranked India at 107 among 121 countries. The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues," the ministry said.

The Central government said that three out of the four indicators, that were used for the calculation of the Global Hunger Index 2022, are related to health of children. India said, they cannot be representative of the entire population.

"The fourth and most important indicator estimate of Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3000,” it said.

The report is not only disconnected from ground reality but also chooses to deliberately ignore efforts made by the government to ensure food security for the population, especially during the Covid pandemic, the government said.

(With agency inputs)