India's Global Health Index rank does not reflect true picture: Smriti Irani

The Global Hunger Index, in which India ranked 102 out of 117 countries, does not reflect the true picture as it is a "flawed" measure of hunger, the Women and Child Development Ministry said on Friday.

Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said the GHI should not be taken at face value as it is neither appropriate nor representative of hunger prevalent in a country.

"Out of its four components, only one component that is undernourishment is directly related to hunger. 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 and 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," she said.

Further, the methodology used in compilation of the GHI is "flawed".

The technique used for standardisation of indicator values puts more emphasis on child wasting and under five mortality which do not represent the hunger situation in the country's overall population.

"Data used in the GHI report are sourced from international agencies which are not updated as per the latest data available in the country," Irani said.

She said the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) 2016-18 (done under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) shows that India has made substantial improvement in two of the parameters used in the GHI.

"Our country's performance would have been better had the GHI score been calculated on the basis of CNNS/SRS data on stunting, wasting and under-five mortality. This method would have improved India's ranking position from 102 to 91," the minister claimed.