Global Hunger Index: India’s Ranking and Food Security Crisis

India is the world’s fifth-largest economy. Yet, when it comes to feeding its people – especially its children – the country faces a deep and persistent crisis. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) brings this uncomfortable truth into sharp focus every year, ranking nations on how well they address hunger and malnutrition. India’s performance on this index has consistently raised alarm among policymakers, health experts, and global agencies alike. Understanding the GHI – how it works, what it reveals about India, and why the problem runs far deeper than food availability – is essential for anyone interested in sustainability, public health, or social justice.

What is the Global Hunger Index? 🔗

The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report published jointly by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, with the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) at Ruhr-University Bochum joining as an academic partner in 2024. The GHI is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels. First published in 2006, it was originally developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) before being handed over to its current publishers in 2018.

The GHI scores countries on a 100-point scale, where 0 represents no hunger and 100 represents the worst possible situation. Based on their scores, countries are classified into severity categories: low (≤9.9), moderate (10.0-19.9), serious (20.0-34.9), alarming (35.0-49.9), and extremely alarming (≥50.0). No country has ever reached either extreme of this scale.

The four indicators behind the GHI score 🔗

The GHI score is not based on a single metric. Instead, it combines four component indicators that capture the multi-dimensional nature of hunger:

Undernourishment refers to the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient. Child stunting measures the percentage of children under five with low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition over time. Child wasting captures the share of children under five with low weight for their height, indicating acute undernutrition. And child mortality tracks the death rate of children before their fifth birthday, which partly reflects the fatal consequences of inadequate nutrition combined with unhealthy living conditions.

By combining these four indicators, the GHI goes beyond simply measuring food availability and provides a more holistic picture of hunger, nutrition, and child health outcomes.

India’s performance on the Global Hunger Index 🔗

India’s track record on the GHI has been consistently poor relative to its economic standing. In the 2025 Global Hunger Index, India ranked 102nd out of 123 countries, with a score of 25.8 – classified as “serious” on the hunger severity scale. While this is an improvement from its 2000 score of 38.1 (which fell in the “alarming” category), progress has been painfully slow, particularly in the last decade.

The topic summary for this discussion references the 2012 GHI report, where India ranked 65th. At that time, a staggering 43.5% of children under five were underweight according to WHO data based on the 2005-06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3). Child underweight accounted for nearly two-thirds of India’s high GHI score that year. Between 2005 and 2010, India ranked second-to-last on child underweight out of 129 countries – performing worse than Ethiopia, Niger, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Where India stands today on key indicators 🔗

The most recent data paints a concerning picture. India’s child wasting rate stands at 18.7%, which is the second-highest in the entire GHI report. Child stunting is at 32.9%, placing India among the top 21 countries with the highest stunting rates. The prevalence of undernourishment is 12.0%, and the under-five mortality rate has improved to 2.8%. While child mortality has seen significant progress since 2000, the two child undernutrition indicators remain alarmingly high.

India’s neighbours fare better on several of these measures. In the 2023 GHI, for instance, Pakistan ranked 102nd, Bangladesh 81st, Nepal 69th, and Sri Lanka 60th – all ahead of India despite having smaller economies. This disconnect between economic power and nutritional outcomes is what makes India’s case particularly striking.

Beyond food availability: why malnutrition persists 🔗

One of the most important takeaways from India’s GHI performance is that hunger and malnutrition cannot be explained by food scarcity alone. India is a food-surplus country. It has consistently maintained food grain reserves well above the required buffer stock norms. Yet, malnutrition persists because the problem is rooted in a complex web of socio-economic, cultural, and systemic factors.

Poverty and inequality 🔗

Economic inequality is a fundamental driver. Despite India’s GDP growth, millions continue to live in extreme poverty, making it difficult to afford nutritious food. The rates of underweight children are significantly higher in rural regions compared to urban areas, and even higher among scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Children from the poorest wealth quintiles are far more likely to experience stunting and wasting than those from wealthier households.

Gender inequality and women’s status 🔗

Gender inequality plays a critical but often underappreciated role in child malnutrition. In many parts of India, women have limited decision-making power within their households, which directly affects how food is distributed among family members. Research shows that households where women have greater authority tend to have children with lower rates of malnutrition.

Women’s own nutritional status during pregnancy is another critical factor. Malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to low-weight babies, setting off a cycle of undernutrition that carries into the next generation. Cultural practices such as women eating last or eating less than male family members, gender bias in resource allocation, and limited access to healthcare during pregnancy and lactation all contribute to this problem. As research from the NFHS-5 data highlights, maternal BMI, education level, and age are among the strongest predictors of child nutritional outcomes.

Sanitation, hygiene, and hidden hunger 🔗

Poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water are major but often overlooked contributors to malnutrition. The World Health Organization estimates that 50% of malnutrition is linked to repeated diarrhoea or intestinal infections caused by poor sanitation. These infections prevent children from absorbing nutrients from their food, even when food is available.

India also faces the challenge of “hidden hunger” – micronutrient deficiencies that do not manifest as visible weight loss but cause long-term damage to cognitive development, immunity, and overall health. Iron deficiency anaemia, for instance, affects a large proportion of Indian women and children. Data from the NFHS-5 showed that nearly 67% of children and 57% of women of reproductive age in India were anaemic.

Criticisms of the GHI methodology 🔗

India’s government has repeatedly challenged the GHI’s methodology and findings. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has argued that the four indicators used in the GHI do not directly measure hunger, and that referring to the index as a “hunger” index is misleading. Indian policymakers have pointed out that international norms for stunting and wasting may not fully account for genetic and ethnic variations in body size across populations.

The government has also questioned the sample size and methodology used by FAO to estimate the prevalence of undernourishment. The Ministry of Women and Child Development noted that the FAO’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) survey, which feeds into the GHI calculation, relies on a very small sample of around 3,000 respondents – a number critics consider inadequate for a country of India’s size and diversity. The government has also highlighted that data from India’s own Poshan Tracker, which covers over 7 crore children, shows significantly lower wasting rates than those used in the GHI.

These criticisms raise valid methodological questions. However, independent researchers note that the GHI uses standardised data sources across all countries for comparability, and introducing country-specific exceptions would undermine the index’s purpose as a global benchmarking tool.

India’s food security initiatives 🔗

Despite the grim numbers, India has launched several ambitious programmes aimed at tackling hunger and malnutrition. These initiatives represent a significant policy commitment, even if challenges in implementation remain.

National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 🔗

The NFSA transformed food security from a welfare measure into a legal right. It covers approximately 81 crore (810 million) beneficiaries across India, including 16 crore women. Under the Act, priority households receive 5 kg of food grains per person per month at heavily subsidised prices – ₹3/kg for rice, ₹2/kg for wheat, and ₹1/kg for coarse grains. The Act also provides for maternity benefits and nutritional support to pregnant and lactating women through the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).

POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) 🔗

Launched in March 2018, POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to reduce stunting, wasting, and anaemia through a convergence-based approach. The programme mobilises an army of approximately 1.4 million frontline workers (Anganwadi workers) to reach over 80 million beneficiaries across every village and urban slum. It leverages the Poshan Tracker, a digital platform recognised by the WHO, for near real-time monitoring of nutritional data. Between 2015-16 and 2019-21, child stunting in 11 focus states decreased from an average of 41% to 37%.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) 🔗

Originally launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide free food grains to vulnerable populations, PMGKAY has since been extended for five more years from January 2024. The scheme provides free food grains to approximately 81.35 crore beneficiaries. During the pandemic period alone, approximately 1,118 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were allocated under this programme, with a financial outlay of around ₹3.91 lakh crore.

PM POSHAN (Mid-Day Meal Scheme) 🔗

This scheme targets hunger and malnutrition among school-going children by providing one nutritious hot cooked meal daily to all primary students in government and government-aided schools. With a budget allocation of over ₹1.30 lakh crore for 2021-2026, it serves the dual purpose of improving nutritional status and encouraging regular school attendance.

The road ahead: what needs to change 🔗

India’s food security challenge is not simply about producing or distributing more food. It requires addressing the structural determinants of malnutrition – poverty, gender inequality, poor sanitation, and gaps in healthcare access. Several areas demand attention.

First, nutrition must be treated as a cross-sectoral issue. Improving nutritional outcomes requires coordinated action across agriculture, education, sanitation, women’s empowerment, and healthcare. The first 1,000 days of a child’s life – from conception to age two – are critical for preventing irreversible developmental damage, and programmes need to focus intensely on maternal nutrition and infant feeding practices during this window.

Second, gender norms around food allocation need to shift. As long as women eat last and eat less in households, and as long as girls receive fewer healthcare and nutritional resources than boys, malnutrition will persist regardless of food availability. Empowering women with education, economic resources, and decision-making power is one of the most effective strategies for improving child nutrition outcomes.

Third, data quality and monitoring must improve. The debates between India’s government and international agencies over methodology highlight the need for more frequent, large-scale, and methodologically robust nutrition surveys. Better data enables better targeting of interventions to the communities and districts that need them most.

Finally, implementation gaps in existing schemes must be closed. India’s policy framework for food security is among the most comprehensive in the developing world. But leakages in the public distribution system, uneven quality of services at Anganwadi centres, and limited reach in remote tribal areas continue to undermine impact on the ground.

A crisis that demands sustained commitment 🔗

The Global Hunger Index is not a perfect measure, and India’s government has valid grounds to debate its methodology. But the underlying reality it points to – that millions of Indian children suffer from chronic and acute malnutrition despite the country’s economic growth and food surplus – is corroborated by India’s own national survey data. Addressing this crisis requires more than policy announcements. It demands sustained investment, accountability, community-level engagement, and a willingness to confront the socio-cultural barriers that keep India’s most vulnerable populations trapped in cycles of deprivation.

What do you think? Can India’s food security programmes overcome deep-rooted socio-cultural barriers like gender inequality and caste-based discrimination to meaningfully reduce child malnutrition? And should global indices like the GHI adopt more context-sensitive methodologies, or does a standardised approach remain essential for holding nations accountable?

References

1. https://www.globalhungerindex.org/
2. https://www.globalhungerindex.org/methodology.html
3. https://www.globalhungerindex.org/india.html
4. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/gobal-hunger-index-2023
5. https://outreach-international.org/blog/malnutrition-in-india/
6. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11352507/
7. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9131786/
8. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1967164
9. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId=151969&ModuleId=3&reg=3&lang=1
10. https://globalallianceagainsthungerandpoverty.org/country-example/india-national-nutrition-mission-poshan-abhiyan/