NEW DELHI: India has slipped to 107th position in the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI). Notably, India is behind neighboring countries Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64) and Bangladesh (84). This is stated in the investigation report jointly conducted by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.

GHI has given 29.1 points to India. Yemen is at the bottom of the list at 121st place. China and Kuwait are at the top spot of the list dominated by European nations. Mainly four factors are considered as the criteria for preparing the list. Factors considered include undernourishment, child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition), child wasting (the share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition) and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).

India's GHI score has been on a downward spiral for the past few years. From an alarming score of 38.8 in 2000, it had dropped to 28.2 by 2014. A score less than 9.9 is considered ‘low’, 10-19.9 is ‘moderate’, 20-34.9 is ‘serious’, 35-49.9 is ‘alarming’, and above 50 is ‘extremely alarming’.

According to the report, India has the highest number of child deaths in the world. One of the reasons for this is the growing population of the country. However, India has managed to reduce stunting among children under five years of age from 38.7 in 2014 to 35.5 in 2022. The under-five mortality rate has declined from 4.6 in 2014 to 3.3 in 2022.