Odisha has topped the ranking of States in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA), followed by Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. However, the ranking denotes only the efficiency of public distribution system operation and does not reflect the level of hunger or malnutrition, the government said. It also indicated more parameters in subsequent years may align with global hunger index.

Releasing the State Ranking Index for NFSA 2022 during a conference of State food ministers on nutrition security on Tuesday, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal said the ranking will lead to healthy competition among States under the NFSA. Over 80 crore beneficiaries under the food law get 5kg of rice/wheat per person per month at ₹1-3 per kg.

The minister said that the exercise of ranking the States and Union Territories was commissioned by the Food Ministry through a third party.

As per the Centre’s ranking, Odisha is at first position with a score of 0.836, followed by Uttar Pradesh (0.797), Andhra Pradesh (0.794), Gujarat (0.790), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu (0.787), Madhya Pradesh (0.786), Bihar (0.783), Karnataka (0.779), Tamil Nadu (0.778), Jharkhand (0.754), Kerala (0.750), Telangana (0.743), Maharashtra (0.708), West Bengal (0.704), Rajasthan (0.694). Punjab (0.665), Haryana (0.661), Delhi (0.658), Chhattisgarh (0.654) and Goa (0.631).

Special category States

Among the special category States (the North-Eastern and , Himalayan, and the Island states), Tripura is ranked at the top, followed by Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Despite the logistical limitations in these areas, they displayed a high degree of accomplishment in competing with the general category States as well, the report said.

According to the report, most States and Union Territories have fared well in digitisation, Aadhaar seeding, and ePoS installation, indicating the penetration of reforms process initiated by the government.

‘Serious level of hunger’

“However, the States and Union Territories can improve their performance in a few areas. Exercises such as conducting and documenting social audits thoroughly and operationalising functions of state food commissions, will further bolster the true spirit of the Act. The subsequent versions (of the report) will incorporate details of such indicators more elaborately. Attempts to align indicators to global food security measurement tools will also be pursued,” the report said.

In the 2021 Global Hunger Index (GHI), India ranks at 101 out of 116 countries for which sufficient data were available. With a score of 27.5, India has a level of hunger that is ‘serious’, the GHI report said.

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