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Global Hunger Index: Congress is equally to blame as Modi government

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Abhishek
AbhishekOct 30, 2017 | 13:44

Global Hunger Index: Congress is equally to blame as Modi government

Initiatives like Human Development Index, Global Hunger Index or any indicator like this are meant to create a pressure on the governments so that they can recognise the pitfalls and mend their policies. They are not a political tool meant to play the blame game. But unfortunately, politics (read dirty politics) enters everywhere. And, this is what happened after the release of the 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI) by the Washington-based think-tank, International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI).

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GHI is meant for reform and national political accountability by gathering data on hunger and malnutrition, and monitoring policy change.

According to the latest GHI, India ranks 100th out of 119 developing countries. However, the report is being presented as a comparison between the UPA and the NDA governments, as after an improvement in its rank from 66th position in 2008 to 55th in 2014, India now slipped to 100th position. The statement is one of the best examples of a half-truth as it created an illusion that the incidence of hunger in India that went down from 2008 to 2014 has increased between 2014 and 2016.

There are four points about GHI worth mentioning here.

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Malnutrition is not just about food. 

First, the Global Hunger Index does actually measures “child malnutrition”, which means it does not monitor the ability to access food items or the amount of food being taken by the persons concerned, but the amount of nutrition that the concerned person is receiving. Now this also depends upon their knowledge about good nutrition, that is, about locally available cheaper food items having better nutritive values and the state of health.

Second, it is more about public health. Third, the GHI 2017 scores reflect hunger and undernourishment level during the period 2012-2016 rather than that of May 16, 2014.

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And, fourth, the main reason behind the slip is the new formula for calculation of GHI score, as the report itself mentions it on page number 7: "The current formula was introduced in 2015 and is a revision of the original formula that was used to calculate GHI scores from 2008-14."

The primary differences are that child stunting and child wasting have replaced child underweight, and the four indicator values - under nourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality - are now standardised.

In 2016, when India was at 97th position, Neetu Choudhary, who works with the AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, Patna, noted in her commentary in the Economic and Political Weekly that it is not only India, but the GHI scores of several countries of the Global South have deteriorated.

GHI 2017 does not reveal something unknown. It raises concerns over child wasting rate and child stunting. The report says that the child wasting rate has not substantially improved over the past 25 years, and while it recognises India’s progress in its child stunting rate, it also highlights that the areas of concern remain.

It includes the timely introduction of complementary food for young children as share of children between six- and 23-month-old who receive an adequate diet remains a mere 9.6 per cent for the country and household access to improved sanitation facilities.

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The current standard definition for stunting was introduced by nutritionists John Waterlow, who distinguished between deficit in height-for-age and weight-for-height, he called these deficits stunting and wasting respectively.

According to National Family Health Survey-4, India Fact-Sheet, in 2005-06 when NFHS-3 was conducted, there were 48 per cent children in India who were stunted, in 2015-16. When NFHS-4 was conducted, it went down to 38.4 per cent (31 per cent urban and 41.2 per cent rural).  

For the wasted children under five years, in 2005-06 it was 19.8 per cent which rose to 21 per cent (20 per cent urban and 21.5 per cent rural). 

And, for severely wasted children, the per cent remained 6.4 per cent for 2005-06 and 7.5 per cent for 2015-16 (7.5 per cent urban and 7.4 per cent rural).

Even while, since 1975, we are having a massive integrated child development scheme (ICDS), providing supplementary nutrition, immunisation, referral services, health check-up, pre-school non-formal education, and health and nutrition education all aimed at a holistic development of children under six.

Nutrition became a government priority only in 1990s. India formulated the National Nutrition Policy (NNP) and the National Plan of Action on Nutrition (NPAN) in 1993 and 1995 respectively. To have a coordination between the different ministries running nutrition- related interventions, the National Nutrition Mission was set up in September 2003.

But, as stated, malnutrition is not just about food. For example, to combat stunting, dietary improvements like micronutrient supplements for pregnant women and children, fat-fortified products and increased breastfeeding are important, but not sufficient. There are numerous evidence showing that poor hygiene and sanitation are one of the major constraints in linear growth in children. For example, a study done by Audrie Lin and her co-authors, published in The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene shows that the Bangladeshi children having access to clean drinking water, toilets and hand washing had almost 50 per cent better height to age score.

Sanitation has always been central to the Indian tradition. Our shastras gives a detail account about hygiene. Even the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, made cleanliness part of his satyagraha campaign. But the fact is that today we are living in the most unhygienic conditions. We are still following a tradition of open defection which not only causes spread of faecal germs - causing disease like cholera and diarrhoea -  but is one of the major reason behind stunting as Coffey and Spears argues that if Indians are shorter, it is not only because of genetics, poverty or lack of food, but also because of faecal pathogens and parasites spreading due to open defection constantly damaging their guts.

By one estimate, open defecation costs India a staggering 6.4 per cent of its GDP.

This issue has been taken effectively only during the present Modi government. On October 2, 2014, the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched as “a clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary in 2019”.

It was an audacious endeavour not because it wasn’t possible to construct the required number of toilets but because of the herculean task of bringing a behavioural change to 125 crore Indians in just five years. But, three years after the scepticism has been found to be unwarranted.

The Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2017, which was conducted over six months ending in August 2017, and covered 140,000 households across 700 districts can be said to be one of the most authentic survey carried out.

As the QCI surveyors not only personally verified whether households have toilets or not, but even whether toilets are being used or not. And then every enumerated household was geo-tagged. It found that only 26.75 per cent households in the country - 32.5 per cent in rural and 14.4 per cent in urban - are without a toilet and most important thing is that 91.29 per cent rural households having access to a toilet are using it.

Ending malnutrition is a complex issue. It needs a multi-pronged action. The GHI 2017 shows our collective failure in which Congress will have to accept its share. The present government seems to be on right direction.

So, just using a report, without going into details, is neither good for the opposition nor for the country.

Last updated: October 30, 2017 | 13:44
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