India Ranks 111 on Global Hunger Index 2023

In the Global Hunger Index 2023, India was ranked 111th out of 125 countries, a position the government described as "erroneous and with malafide intent." India received a score of 28.7 on the index issued on Thursday, indicating a high level of hunger. Pakistan was ranked 102nd, Bangladesh was ranked 81st, Nepal was ranked 69th, and Sri Lanka was ranked 60th. India, on the other hand, performed better than South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara, both of which received a score of 27. While India's undernourishment rate was 16.6 percent and under-five mortality was 3.1 percent, the incidence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 24 years was 58.1 percent.

While India made tremendous progress between 2000 and 2015, boosting its score from 38.4 in 2000 to 35.5 in 2008 and 29.2 in 2015, the country has gained on the GHI by only 0.5 points over the last eight years. The GHI ratings from 2000, 2008, and 2015 are the only ones that may be utilised to make acceptable temporal comparisons.India's performance is consistent with a worldwide trend. The global GHI score in 2023 is 18.3, which is considered moderate. However, it is only one point lower than the global GHI score of 19.1 in 2015. Globally, the proportion of individuals who are undernourished, which is one of the index's measures, increased from 7.5% in 2017 to 9.2% in 2022, reaching around 735 million.

Comparison with Neighboring Countries

• India: 111th
• Pakistan: 102nd
• Bangladesh: 81st
• Nepal: 69th
• Sri Lanka: 60th

"The GHI continues to be a flawed measure of hunger and does not reflect India's true position. The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator Proportion of Undernourished population (PoU) is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000," the ministry mentioned in the statement.