Global Hunger Index, 2024

On 10th October, 2024, Global Hunger Index was released by Irish humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide and German aid agency Welthungerhilfe to highlight that hunger levels will remain high in many of the world’s poorest countries for several decades in the absence of more progress in measures to tackle the issue.

India ranked 105th out of 127 countries, falls under the “serious” category in the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI), published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
With a GHI score of 27.3, India faces significant challenges in addressing hunger.

Key Points

Undernourishment: 13.7% of India's population is undernourished due to insufficient caloric intake.
Childhood Malnutrition: 35.5% of children under five are stunted, reflecting chronic undernutrition, while 18.7% suffer from wasting, indicating acute undernutrition.
Child Mortality: 2.9% of children die before their fifth birthday, pointing to a fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.
South Asian Countries: India ranks worse than its South Asian neighbors like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, which fall under the "moderate" category, while Pakistan and Afghanistan share India’s “serious” status.
Global Hunger: The GHI report highlights that around 733 million people globally face hunger, while 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.
Regional Conflicts: African nations like Sudan and war-torn regions such as Gaza face severe food crises, further exacerbated by conflict and civil strife in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali, and Syria.
UN's Sustainable Development Goal: The report concludes that achieving the UN’s goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 appears unlikely due to persistent global disparities in food security.