Measuring hunger across States
Context- The article provides details about the State Hunger Index and performance of states in the State Hunger Index.
What are statistics related to the prevalence of hunger in India?
• India continues to face significant challenges related to food insecurity, hunger, and child malnutrition. In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, India was ranked 107th out of 121
countries, trailing behind Nigeria (103) and Pakistan (99).
• According to the 2022 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, India is home to 224.3 million individuals experiencing undernourishment. Furthermore,
disparities in food security and nutrition are clearly evident across different states within
India.
What are some facts about the State Hunger Index?
• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is determined using four key indicators: the prevalence of calorie undernourishment, stunting, wasting, and mortality among children under five years of age, along with the under-five mortality rate.
• In contrast, the State Hunger Index (SHI) employs the same indicators, except for calorie undernourishment. It is replaced by assessing body mass index (BMI) undernourishment among the working-age population.
• To calculate the SHI, data for stunting, wasting, and child mortality below the age of five are obtained from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5).
• The prevalence of BMI undernourishment is computed using data from NFHS-5 (2019- 21) and Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (2017-18).
• The SHI score is determined by combining the normalized values of these four indicators using methodologies recommended by the GHI.
• The resulting SHI scores fall within a range of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater hunger levels.
• Scores below 10 indicate low hunger, 10-20 signify moderate hunger, 20-30 represent a serious hunger situation, 30-40 denote an alarming hunger level, and scores of 50 or above are classified as extremely alarming hunger levels.