India's hunger crisis deepens as GHI 2024 shows rising child malnutrition

India is currently the world’s fastest-growing economy. However, the recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) reveals a worrying reality: In 2024, India has a “serious” level of hunger among the 127 nations assessed. While India scored slightly better than Pakistan and Afghanistan, it lagged Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in South Asia.  Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have consistently performed better than India despite ongoing crises (chart 1).

 

India’s ranking on the index, prepared by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, has also slipped over the years, standing at 105 among 127 countries in 2024. However, it has shown improvement compared to the previous year. Until 2023, all countries in South Asia except Afghanistan had a better ranking than India; in 2024, India had slightly overtaken Pakistan (chart 2).

 

India has shown improvement in all four metrics used to assess the GHI from 2019 to 2024 — undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality. However, the percentage of children under five experiencing child wasting has increased from 17.3 per cent in 2020 to 18.7 per cent in 2024. Additionally, India has the highest child wasting rate and the 14th-highest child stunting rate, according to the report (chart 3).

 

The report said rising food inflation is exacerbating the hunger problem. While India’s food inflation is lower than that of its peers, except for Nepal, it has still risen significantly, nearly doubling from 2019 to 2023 (chart 4).

 

Another factor contributing to increased food insecurity is rising debt. In India, the debt-service ratio rose quite a lot in FY24 year-on-year and stood higher than pre-Covid period (chart 5).

 

Child undernutrition in India is closely linked to the poor health status of mothers as evidenced by the high prevalence of anaemia among women aged 15-49 years. Over half of women in this age group have been anaemic for the last around 15 years compared to only one-fourth of men (chart 6).

 

In the past, India had criticised the GHI for its alleged flawed methodology, though it did not give any rejoinder this time around.