Lok Sabha Question No. 1619 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-16
Subject: Rank in Global Hunger Index
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Rajiv Pratap Rudy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1619 TO BE ANSWERED ON 16.12.2022

## RANK IN GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX

## 1619.  SHRI RAJIV PRATAP RUDY:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- a. whether the Government has identified any problems with the methodology used to calculate the Global Hunger Index which led to slip in India's ranking therein and if so, the details thereof;
- b. whether the Government is planning on carrying out a food consumption survey and if so, the details thereof with the timeline of the survey;
- c. the details of the undernourished and malnourished population of India along with the steps taken by the Government to tackle hunger; and
- d. the details of the key decisions taken at the NITI Aayog high level meeting on Global Hunger Index along with the progress made therein?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a)  to (d) Global Hunger Index (GHI) does not reflect India's true picture as it is a flawed measure of 'Hunger'. It should not be taken at face value as it is neither appropriate nor representative  of  hunger  prevalent  in  a  country.  Out  of  its  four  indicators,  only  one indicator,  i.e.,  undernourishment,  is  directly  related  to  hunger.  The  two  indicators, namely, Stunting and Wasting are outcomes of complex interactions of various other factors  like  sanitation,  genetics,  environment  and  utilisation  of  food  intake  apart  from hunger which is taken as the causative/outcome factor for stunting and wasting in the GHI. Also, there is hardly any evidence that the fourth indicator, namely, child mortality is an outcome of hunger.

The latest survey on Household Consumption Expenditure 2022-23 has been launched in  August 2022 by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to collect information on consumption of food items at household level.

Data on nutritional indicators in the country are captured periodically under the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As per the recent NFHS-5 (2019-21) report, the nutrition indicators for children under 5 years have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). Stunting has reduced from 38.4%  to  35.5%,  Wasting  has  reduced  from  21.0%  to  19.3%  and  Underweight prevalence has reduced from 35.8% to 32.1%.

Government  has  accorded  high  priority  to  the  issue  of  malnutrition  and  is  making serious  efforts  to  address  this  issue.  The  efforts  under  the  Supplementary  Nutrition Programme under Anganwadi Services and POSHAN Abhiyaan have been rejuvenated and  converged  as  'Saksham  Anganwadi  and  POSHAN  2.0'  (Mission  Poshan  2.0).  It seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and  by  creation  of  a  convergent  eco-system  to  develop  and  promote  practices  that nurture health, wellness and immunity.

Poshan  2.0  focuses  on  Maternal  Nutrition,  Infant  and  Young  Child  Feeding  Norms, Treatment  of  MAM/SAM  and  Wellness  through  AYUSH.  It  rests  on  the  pillars  of Convergence, Governance, and Capacity-building. POSHAN Abhiyaan is the key pillar for  Outreach  and  covers  innovations  related  to  nutritional  support,  ICT  interventions, Media  Advocacy  and  Research,  Community  Outreach  and  Jan  Andolan.  Steps  have been  taken  to  improve  nutritional  quality  and  testing  in  accredited  labs,  strengthen delivery  and  leverage  technology  under  the  'Poshan  Tracker',  a  robust  ICT  enabled platform to improve governance with regard to real time monitoring of provisioning of supplementary nutrition for prompt supervision and management of services.

Government released Streamlined Guidelines dated 13.1.2021 for greater transparency, accountability  and  quality  in  the  nutrition  support  programme  and  service  delivery. These  guidelines  emphasize  on  ensuring  the  quality  of  supplementary  nutrition, highlight  roles  and  responsibilities  of  duty  holders,  IT  enabled  data  management  and monitoring,  leveraging  of  traditional  knowledge  through  AYUSH,  procurement  and convergence for achieving good nutritional outcomes.

Key decisions taken at the NITI Aayog high level meeting on Global Hunger Index inter alia included regular conduct of national level food consumption surveys and a massive mass awareness campaign on nutrition and healthy diet. Progress made on these are already elaborated above.

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