Global Hunger Index 2021: India slips to 101st spot, behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Centre rejects report

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday rejected the Global Hunger Index saying it was shocking that the rank of India was lowered, adding that the methodology used by FAO is 'unscientific'.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development slammed the Welt Hunger Hilfe for its report and rejected India's rank mentioned in the Global Hunger Report 2021.

"It is shocking to find that the Global Hunger Report 2021 has lowered the rank of India on the basis of FAO estimate on the proportion of the undernourished population, which is found to be devoid of ground reality and facts and suffers from serious methodological issues," the Ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry added, the publishing agencies of the Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have not done their due diligence before releasing the report.

India slipped to the 101st position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 from its 2020 ranking (94), to be placed behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The report, prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, termed the level of hunger in India "alarming".

Calling its methodology used by FAO “unscientific” the Ministry said, "They have based their assessment on the results of a ‘four question’ opinion poll, which was conducted telephonically by Gallup. There is no scientific methodology to measure undernourishment like availability of food grains per capita during the period."

"The scientific measurement of undernourishment would require measurement of weight and Height, whereas the methodology involved here is based on a Gallup poll based on pure telephonic estimate of the population," the Ministry slammed.

It said the report completely disregards government’s massive effort to ensure food security of the entire population during the Covid period, verifiable data on which are available.

"The opinion poll does not have a single question on whether the respondent received any food support from the government or other sources. The representativeness of even this opinion poll is doubtful for India and other countries," it added. (UNI)