‘When will PM address real issues?’: Chidamabram on India slipping to 107 rank in Global Hunger Index
Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament P Chidambaram Saturday took a swipe at the Narendra Modi-led Central government as India slipped down to the 107th position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) of 2022.
The GHI, published yesterday, ranked India in the 107th position among 121 nations. India’s rank was 101 in 2020. India is ranked behind its neighbours Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64), and Bangladesh (84). The GHI, which lists countries by ‘severity’, has given India a score of 29.1, which falls in the ‘serious’ category of hunger level.
When will the Hon’ble PM address real issues like malnutrition, hunger, and stunting and wasting among children?
22.4 crore people in India are considered undernourished
India’s rank in the Global Hunger Index is near the bottom — 107 out of 121 countries
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) October 15, 2022
“When will the Hon’ble PM address real issues like malnutrition, hunger, and stunting and wasting among children? 22.4 crore people in India are considered undernourished,” Chidambaram tweeted on Saturday.
He added: “19.3 per cent of children are wasted, 35.5 per cent of children are stunted. Hindutva, imposing HIndi and spreading Hate are not the antidote to Hunger.”
Comparing it to the UPA government’s regime, Chidambaram said, “Our score has worsened since 2014 in the 8 years of the Modi government. 16.3 per cent of all Indians are undernourished, meaning they do not get enough food.”
While India showed a trend of recording lower scores over the years until 2014, they started going up since then. India’s GHI score was reduced to 28.2 in 2014 from 38.8 in 2000.
According to the GHI data, the proportion of undernourishment in the population went from 14.8 in 2014 to 16.3 in 2022, and the prevalence of wasting in children under five years jumped from 15.1 in 2014 to 19.3 in 2022. Undernourishment is the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake, and child wasting is the share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.
Reacting to the report, CPM leader Sitarama Yechury said that the Modi government is “disastrous for India”. He added that the government should take responsibility for the 8.5 years it has ruled, calling it the “era of darkness”.
