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A fancy diet chart?
Actually, it attempts to statistically measure the prevalance of endemic under-nutrition in a country. What the Indian government terms ‘malnutrition’, the constructors of the Index call ‘hidden hunger’ — a deficiency when micronutrients such as zinc, jod and iron, and vitamins are not part of the diet in adequate quantities, or when their bodies cannot absorb them. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), German non-profit Welthungerhilfe and Irish NGO Concern Worldwide who developed the Global Hunger Index say ‘hidden hunger’ impacts millions of people worldwide.
How can it be measured?
Chronic under-nourishment manifests itself across populations in specific and measurable ways. The GHI combines the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population, the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five, and the mortality rate of children under the age of five. Ranking is on a 100-point scale. Values less than 4.9 reflect ‘low hunger’, between 5 and 9.9 reflect ‘moderate hunger’, between 10 and 19.9 indicate ‘serious’, between 20 and 29.9 alarming’, and exceeding 30 ‘extremely alarming’ hunger problem.
Where’s India here?
India ranks 55 out of 76 countries; it has moved from ‘alarming’ to ‘serious’ and is 120 amongst 128 countries. Also, remember, the GHI ranks only developing countries — the developed world doesn’t figure here at all.
There was no issue of BusinessLine on November 3, 1994, on account of deepavali
A fancy diet chart?
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