• India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI), 2022.
• By 2022, approximately 735 million people (9.2% of the world’s population) were in a state of chronic hunger.
• India is home to 224.3 million undernourished people according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report of 2022.
• India’s National Family Health Survey 5 found that stunting (a sign of chronic malnutrition) had risen in 11 out of the 17 states.
• Wasting (a child who is too thin for his or her height) had increased in 11 states.

Hunger and Food Insecurity:

Hunger:

• Hunger is an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation due to insufficient consumption of dietary energy.
• Chronic hunger is a situation when a person does not consume a sufficient amount of calories (dietary energy) regularly to lead a normal, active and healthy life.
• The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) uses the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) indicator to estimate the extent of hunger in the world.

Food Insecurity:

• A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough, safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.
• Causes: Unavailability of food or lack of resources to obtain food.
• Food insecurity can be experienced at different levels of severity.
• FAO measures food insecurity using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).

Global Hunger Index (GHI):

• The GHI is computed using four indicators:
• Undernourishment as a percentage of the population (1/3 value)
• Child stunting under the age of five (1/6 value)
• Child wasting under five (1/6 value)
• Child mortality under five (1/3 value)
• It is published by Concern Worldwide, an international NGO.
• India’s GHI score has deteriorated primarily due to the increasing prevalence of calorie undernourishment.
• According to the FAO, the PoU in India has been increasing since 2017, reaching 16.3% in 2020.
• The Indian government has raised concerns about the data and methodology used in calculating the GHI.

State Hunger Index (SHI):

• It enables the development of an India-specific hunger index at the level of States and Union Territories.
• It plays a pivotal role in evaluating the extent of undernourishment at a smaller scale, which is critical for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating hunger and malnutrition.

• It is calculated using the same indicators as GHI except for calorie undernourishment, which is replaced by body mass index (BMI).
• Data for stunting, wasting, and mortality among children below the age of five are sourced from the NFHS-5.
• BMI undernourishment is computed using NFHS-5 (2019-21) and Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (2017-18).

SHI scoring:

• The SHI score is calculated by involving the combined normalised values of the four indicators using GHI-recommended techniques.
• It ranges between 0 and 100, with higher scores indicating more hunger.
• Scores below 10 signify low hunger, 10-20 moderate, 20-30 serious, 30-40 alarming, and 50 or above extremely alarming.

State-wise rankings:

• The national average of hunger index is 29.
• Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh scored 35, which places them in the alarming category.
• Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Maharashtra, and West Bengal all scored above the national average.
• Chandigarh scored 12, and Sikkim, Puducherry, and Kerala all scored below 16.
• Chandigarh, Sikkim, Puducherry, Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram, Punjab, Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Tamil Nadu, fall under the moderate hunger category.
• All the other states scoring below the national average and above 20 have a problem of serious hunger.
• No State falls under the low hunger category.
• The impact of COVID-19 on the SHI is not captured here since post-pandemic estimates are not yet available.

GHI Criticisms and Challenges in India:

• While the GHI has faced criticism regarding its conceptualisation, indicator selection, and aggregation methods, it does provide critical insight into the state of undernourishment and child nutrition.
• India’s poor performance in the GHI is due to its high PoU and child malnutrition.
• India has performed worse than many low-income African nations in child wasting.
• 20% of children in India suffer from wasting.
• The NFHS-5 indicated that one-third of children under the age of 5 are stunted and underweight.
• India has alleviated extreme poverty in the last 15 years as indicated by the but there are still challenges to be faced in addressing the disparity in food insecurity, hunger, and child malnutrition. (National Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023)

India’s initiatives to combat hunger and Poverty:

• Public Distribution System (PDS): It is an Indian food security system, that distributes food and non-food items to India''s poor at subsidised rates.
• National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013: To help tackle hunger and malnutrition.
• It ensures access to subsidized food grains for about 810 million people and provides meals for pregnant women, children below six years, and lactating mothers under the National Nutrition Mission.
• National Food Security Mission (NFSM): It was launched in 2007 as a Central Sector Scheme (CSS), to increase food production and productivity through area expansion and productivity enhancement interventions in rice, wheat, pulses, oilseeds, etc.
• National Agriculture Market (e-NAM): It is a platform that acts as an online marketplace for farmers to trade their products without geographical boundaries.
• National Food Processing Mission: To promote agri-based industries for efficient use of farm produce and reduce post-harvest losses.
• Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for Agricultural products.
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY): To provide crop insurance against natural calamities.
• National Horticulture Mission: For the holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo.

Sustainable Development Goal 2:

• It aims to achieve Zero hunger by year 2030.
• Mission: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
• India has targeted to end hunger and ensure safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people by 2030.

Food security requires a multi-dimensional approach from social protection to safeguard safe and nutritious food, especially for children to transforming food systems to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable world. There will need to be investments in local, rural and urban areas and social protection so poor people have access to food and can improve their livelihoods.