Child rights bodies express concern over India's GHI ranking

Child rights bodies have expressed concern over India's 102nd ranking in the Global Hunger Index, saying there is a need tosignificantly increase financial allocation for social sector, specially children.

India ranked 102 out of 117 countries as per the Global Hunger Index 2019, while in 2018, it was ranked 103 out of 119 countries, and 83 out of 113 countries in 2000.

Save the Children, a child rights body said a significant number of children in the country are undernourished and it also reflects in their national surveys.

"Though there was progress in reducing malnutrition as we can see between consecutive national surveys, the rate of reduction is sub-optimal. It is crucial, more than ever, that we ensure comprehensive care to under-nourished children and we hope the government will be able to drive progress more swiftly," the child rights body said in a statement.

Child Rights and You (CRY) said to maintain improvement over time what is required is a significant financial allocation for the social sector, specially children.

"We have been witnessing a continuous declining trend of children budget for the last 2-3 years with the allocations at Rs 91,644.29 crores in comparison to 2018-19's allocation figures of Rs 79,090 crores allocated for children," the CRY said in a statement.

"We need to break the vicious cycle of hunger, as we all know adolescent girl's early marriage leads to early childbearing which adversely affects the nutrition status of both; of young mothers and children. To stop early marriages we need to have better education facilities and social protection and welfare schemes for children and poor families, adds Priti Mahara, Director of Policy Advocacy and Research, CRY.

Seventeen countries, including Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Cuba and Kuwait, shared the top rank with GHI scores of less than five, the website of the Global Hunger Index that tracks hunger and malnutrition said on Wednesday.

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