Global Hunger Index 2022: India has fallen to rank 107 out of 121 countries in the rankings of the Global Hunger Index 2022.

The country has always been at the forefront of hunger issues, it ranked 101 the year before, in 2021, and has slipped 6 ranks this year. 

India ranked below Pakistan (99), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and even crisis-laden Sri Lanka (64). War-stricken Afghanistan (109) is the only South Asian nation ranked below India. 

With a score of less than five, 17 nations are the top performers on the hunger index. Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, China, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Uruguay, and are the top 17 nations.

What Is Global Hunger Index?

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for extensively evaluating and monitoring hunger at the international, regional, and national levels. 

The primary objective of the GHI is to bring attention to the fight against hunger, provide a tool to compare hunger levels between nations, and draw awareness to those regions where hunger levels are highest.

How Is The Global Hunger Index Calculated?

The Global Hunger Index takes into account four parameters to “capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.” The four parameters are:

1. Undernourishment: The percentage of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient.
2. Children Stunting: It is the percentage of children under the age of five that are underweight for their age.
3. Child Wasting: The percentage of kids under five that are underweight for their height, which is a sign of severe malnutrition.
4. Child Mortality: The percentage of children that pass away before turning five, due to the deadly combination of poor nutrition and a hazardous environment.

The most recent published data from internationally renowned sources are used to calculate values for the four variables that make up each country. 

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) uses a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best and 100 representing the worst. However, neither of these extremes can be reached. 

A score of 100 indicates that a nation's levels of undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality perfectly meet the benchmarks set just slightly above the highest levels seen globally in recent decades, which is not possible. A country would have a value of 0 if there were no undernourished persons in the population, no wasted or stunted children under the age of 5, and no children under the age of five who passed away, which is also impossible. 

The GHI categorizes the results into five levels of severity: 

1. Low: 9.9 or lower
2. Moderate: 10.0–19.9
3. Serious: 20.0–34.9 
4. Alarming: 35.0–49.9
5. Extremely Alarming: 49.9 or higher

India falls into the "serious" category with a score of 29.1. The report states that India has the highest child-wasting rate of 19.3% in the world, owing to its huge population. India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan all have child stunting rates between 35 and 38 percent, with Afghanistan having the highest rate. 

According to the 2022 GHI, recent advancements in the fight against hunger have mostly frozen. The situation has gotten worse in numerous nations and regions.

The current onslaught of concurrent global crises is likely to make the situation worse. Food shortages in 2023 and beyond may result from the war in Ukraine, which has driven up the price of food, fuel, and fertilizer globally.