Global Hunger Index misguided, suffers from severe methodological points, says Govt
The Government of India on Saturday said ‘Global Hunger Report – 2022’ which placed India at 107, is totally erroneous, spreading misinformation. “The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index,” said the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The report is prepared jointly by two NGOs – Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfe.
“A consistent effort is yet again visible to taint India’s image as a Nation that does not fulfill its population’s food security and nutritional requirements. Misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index. The Global Hunger Report 2022 released by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, Non-Government Organizations from Ireland and Germany respectively, has ranked India at 107 among 121 countries.
“The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of Children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator estimate of the Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a tiny sample size of 3000,” said the Ministry.
The Ministry said that the report is not only disconnected from ground reality but also chooses to deliberately ignore efforts made by the government to ensure food Security for the population, especially during the Covid Pandemic. Taking a one-dimensional view, the report lowers India’s rank based on the estimate of the Proportion of the Undernourished (PoU) population for India at 16.3%.
“The FAO estimate is based on “The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)” Survey Module conducted through Gallop World Poll, which is an “opinion poll” based on “8 questions” with a sample size of “3000 respondents”. The data collected from a minuscule sample for a country of India’s size through FIES has been used to compute PoU value for India which is not only wrong & unethical, but it also reeks of blatant bias. The publishing agencies of the Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide, and Welt Hunger Hilfe, have evidently not done their due diligence before releasing the report.
“The matter was taken up with FAO not to use such estimates based on FIES survey module data in July 2022 as the statistical output of the same will not be based on merit. Though an assurance was forthcoming that there will be further engagement on this issue, the publication of the Global Hunger Index report irrespective of such factual considerations is regrettable,” said the Ministry rejecting the Report.
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Surprised why the Indian babus are so sensitive to this roadside publications ? Just ignore & move ahead.