The Centre on Friday said the Global Hunger Index 2021, in which India has slipped from the 94th to the 101st position out of 116 countries, is devoid of ground reality and facts. It also said the methodology used to calculate is unscientific.
"Global Hunger Report 2021 is found to be devoid of ground reality & facts and suffers from serious methodological issues. Publishing agencies of Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have not done their due diligence before releasing report," said the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
"The methodology used by FAO is unscientific. They have based their assessment on the results of a ‘four question’ opinion poll, which was conducted telephonically by Gallup," it added.
With a score of 27.5, India has slipped to the 101st position out of 116 countries in the 2021 Global Hunger Index (GHI).
India is now behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, stated the GHI report released on Thursday.
The report, prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, mentioned the level of hunger in India as "alarming" with its GHI score decelerating from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.8 - 27.5 between 2012 and 2021.
Neighbouring countries like Nepal (76), Bangladesh (76), Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92) are also in the 'alarming' hunger category but have fared better, added the report.
Meanwhile, China, Brazil and Kuwait shared the top rank with a GHI score of less than five, reported the GHI website.
GHI is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and national levels.
The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a means to compare the levels of hunger between countries and regions and call attention to the areas of the world in greatest need of additional resources to eliminate hunger.
(With ANI inputs)
