The Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) on Friday said it was “shocked” at India’s lowered rank of 101 in the Global Hunger Report 2021 and dismissed the methodology used as “unscientific”. The ministry said that methodology used to arrive at the rank was “devoid of ground reality and facts”. India was ranked a low 101, a slip from last year’s position of 94, among 116 countries.
“The publishing agencies of the Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have not done their due diligence before releasing the report,” a statement released by the WCD ministry said.
The ministry said that the report was based 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 Gallup poll based on pure telephonic estimate of the population.”
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 statement said.
The ministry also listed all the schemes introduced during 2020 including implementation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan and Anna Yojna, Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme, providing food grains from April to November 2020 free of cost to all beneficiaries under National Food Security Act, increasing MNREGA wages, and so on.
The ministry further noted “with surprise” that other four countries of this region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka were not found to have not been affected at all by Covid-19 pandemic induced loss of job/business and reduction in income levels according to the report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’ report.
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