Context: The Global Hunger Index 2024 ranks India 105th among 127 countries, categorising India’s hunger level as serious, sparking widespread debates.
Relevance: GS 2 (Social Justice)
Practice question: Discuss the state of hunger and malnutrition in India with a focus on the Global Hunger Index Report 2024. Suggest suitable measures to effectively counter it. (250 words)
Key Themes :
- Staggering numbers: India’s 200 million undernourished people represent the population of Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest country in terms of population. 14% of the population of India is undernourished, according to numbers by GHI 2024.
- Data considered: The GHI 2024 takes into account data from the Ministry of Statistics’ sample registration system, which consists of births, deaths, and infant and maternal mortality rates as published by the Ministry of Women and Children.
- Serious category: India is placed in the serious category but could move to “extremely alarming” if other relevant factors are considered.
- Systematic failures: The GHI report highlights a systematic failure by the Indian state to address fundamental needs such as adequate food and nutrition, which are essential for harnessing the benefits of demographic dividends.
- Income inequality: Despite India being considered one of the fastest-growing economies with a growth rate of 6.8% in FY24, its per capita income remains less than a quarter of the global average. This indicates wide income inequality. i.e., India’s per capita income is $2,485 in FY24 compared to the global average of $13,920 in FY22.
- Doubled food inflation: Between FY22 and FY24, food inflation doubled from 3.8% to 7.5%, disproportionately affecting the poor. The Economic Survey 2023-34 attributes this to extreme weather events and low reservoir levels.
- Hunger levels and bumper crops: Despite recording one of the highest levels of food production of 332 million metric tonnes undernourished, remains a pressing issue.
- Failure of safety nets and health care system: This is evident from high rates of child stunting of 35.5% and child wasting rates of 18.7%.
Way forward:
- Strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) through schemes like “one nation, one ration card.”
- Reduce income inequalities with initiatives like universal basic income.
- Tackling food inflation through resilient agricultural practices.
- Scale up programs like Poshan Abhiyan 2.0 and midday meals to combat child malnutrition.
- Collaboration with international organisations like the World Bank for technical support.
- Promotion of climate-resilient agriculture, involving crop diversification, water conservation, etc. Etc
- Addressing nutrition deficiency through movements like EAT-RIGHT and promotion of millets.
Conclusion :
India should adopt a multifaceted approach to address the root causes of hunger, such as poverty, income inequality and food inflation to achieve sustainable development goal 2, which focuses on food security and nutrition. At the same time, India must also tackle the rising issue of obesity, which is often referred to as a silent pandemic, to prevent future complications.
