The country has the highest prevalence of “wasted children”; even Bangladesh and Pakistan perform better
India has the highest prevalence of children under five years of age with wasting in the world, reflecting acute malnutrition, according to the Global Hunger Index 2020. The situation has worsened in the period 2015-19, when the prevalence of wasting Childhood was 17.3%, compared to 2010-14, when it was 15.1%.
Overall, India ranks 94th out of 107 countries in the Index, below neighbors such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88). The 2020 scores reflect data from 2015-19. The Index, released on Friday, is a peer-reviewed report published annually by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
Use four parameters to determine your scores. India has the worst results in childhood wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute malnutrition) and child stunting (short height for age, reflecting chronic malnutrition), which together account for one third of the total score.
However, while still in the poorest category, childhood stunting has improved significantly, from 54% in 2000 to less than 35% today. Child wasting, on the other hand, has not improved in the last two decades and is far worse than a decade ago.
India has improved both in infant mortality rates, which are now 3.7%, and in terms of malnutrition, with around 14% of the total population receiving insufficient caloric intake.
In South, East, and Southeast Asia, the only countries failing worse than India are Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and North Korea.
Pandemic effect
Globally, about 690 million people are undernourished, according to the report, which warns that the COVID-19 pandemic could have affected progress in reducing hunger and poverty.
“The world is not on track to achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal – known as Zero Hunger – by 2030. At the current rate, approximately 37 countries will not even achieve low hunger, as defined by the Global Hunger Index Severity Scale, by 2030, ”the report says. “These projections do not take into account the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may worsen hunger and malnutrition in the short term and affect countries’ trajectories into the future … COVID-19 has made it clearer than ever. that our food systems, as they are, are inadequate for the task of achieving Zero Hunger. “
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