india

Updated: Apr 24, 2018 15:30 IST

New Delhi:

Hunger levels in developing countries may have fallen 29% since 2000, but India was still rated as a country with ‘serious’ hunger levels in the 2016 , shows Global Hunger Index that was released on Tuesday .

Despite improvements in hunger and nutrition over the years, India still has a long way to go before it is able to achieve the United Nations goal to end hunger by 2030

If hunger declines at the same rate as the report finds it has since 1992, more than 45 countries—including India, Pakistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Afghanistan—will still have “moderate” to “alarming” hunger scores in the year 2030.

India was rated as “alarming” in 2013 and has experienced an improvement in its GHI score over recent years.

Since 2000, the country has reduced its GHI score by a quarter and has a score in 2016 of 28.5 (rank 97 of 118 countries). Recent data show that almost 40% of Indian children under five years of age are stunted compared to over 60% in the early 1990s.

Stunting is an indicator for chronic under-nutrition and means the affected children are too short for their age. India currently has the fifth highest GHI score in Asia— better than only Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, and North Korea.

“India is slated to become the world’s most populous nation in just six years, and it’s crucial that we meet this milestone with a record of ensuring that the expected 1.4 billion Indians have enough nutritious food to lead healthy and successful lives,” said PK Joshi, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director for South Asia.

“India is making tremendous progress—but we have significant challenges ahead.”

Director General, IFPRI, Shenggen Fan, says, “Simply put, countries must accelerate the pace at which they are reducing hunger or we will fail to achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal.”

“Ending global hunger is certainly possible, but it’s up to all of us that we set the priorities right to ensure that governments, the private sector and civil society devote the time and resources necessary to meet this important goal.”

Globally, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Zambia had the highest levels of hunger in the report. The GHI score for the developing world as a whole is 21.3, which is in the low end of the “serious” category.

Africa South of the Sahara has the highest hunger level, followed closely by South Asia. Rounding out the top 10 countries with the highest levels of hunger after Central African Republic, Chad, and Zambia are: Haiti, Madagascar, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, and Niger.

Around half of the populations of Haiti, Zambia, and the Central African Republic are undernourished— the highest in the report. In Timor-Leste, Burundi, and Papua New Guinea, approximately half of children under five are too short for their age due to nutritional deficiencies.

The positive, however, is that 20 countries, including Rwanda, Cambodia, and Myanmar, have all reduced their GHI scores by over 50% each since 2000. And for the second year in a row, no developing countries for which data was available were in the “extremely alarming” category.

The GHI ranks countries based on four key indicators: undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting and child stunting. The 2016 report ranked 118 countries in the developing world, almost half of which have “serious” or “alarming” hunger levels.

“The 2030 Agenda set a clear global objective for an end to hunger - everywhere - within the next 14 years,” says David Nabarro, special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change.

“Too many people are hungry today. There is a need for urgent, thoughtful and innovative action to ensure that no one ever goes hungry again.”