Poverty and hunger have a strong correlation. Most of the people who suffer from hunger every day, are consequently malnourished, are the people who are extremely poor and do not have access to food.

In the above light, a Brookings’ study suggested that poverty in India is falling at a rapid pace – with about 44 people are coming out poverty every minute. India also shed the tag of having the largest poor population in the world. This effectively contradicts the argument that hunger in India is increasing. On the contrary, with more people coming out of poverty, a number of people suffering from hunger are also bound to go down.

Further, National Food Security Act (NFSA), which legally guarantees the access to food to all the vulnerable people in the country, has been implemented by the present government across the country covering all states and UTs, within a span of just two years after coming to power in 2014. Approximately 80 crore people of India have already been covered under the NFSA, and are getting wheat at Rs. 2 per kg. and rice at Rs. 3 per kg.

Thus, the Global Hunger Index 2018 should be quoted accurately and in the right context. India’s GHI score has improved which reflects a clear-cut decline in hunger. This is also in tune with the Brookings’ study and through the successful implementation of the NFSA Act.

So, the rank may not accurately give the true picture of India’s performance, due to the addition of 44 countries in the index since 2017. In fact, GHI itself clarifies in its report that “rankings cannot be accurately compared with rankings and index scores from the previous reports.”

But, Rahul Gandhi never spared an opportunity to shame the country. Earlier too in 2017, he has misquoted the same Global Hunger Index 2017. He tweeted the following.

But, as soon as the The True Picture came out with a fact check on this. Congress President was replied by many including the union ministers.