A Hungry State

In the first of attempts to map state-wise hunger index of the country on the lines of the Global Hunger Index, US-based International Food Policy Research Institute released an India State Hunger Index (ISHI) report on Tuesday, saying, India is home to the worlds largest food-insecure population, with more than 200 million hungry people.

Lack of proper nutrition among the children and poor calorie count are behind India’s dismal performance, says the report, released by G K Chadha, member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

India, which ranked 66th in the Global Hunger Index of 88 countries, does not have a single state in the ‘low hunger’ or ‘moderate hunger’ categories.

The five worst performing states in hunger level terms are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Gujarat. The supposedly prosperous Gujarat ranks below the poor state of Orissa

Madhya Pradesh, which falls in the “extremely alarming” category, would rank between Ethiopia and Chad in the global list

Twelve states, including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and West Bengal, are in the ‘alarming’ category.

Four states Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam are in the ‘serious’ category. Punjab, the best-performing state in the country in terms of hunger, would rank below countries like Gabon, Honduras and Vietnam, placed low in the global index.

Though the index is titled India State Hunger Index – 2008, it has used data from the NFHS survey of 2005-06 and the NSSO survey of 2004-05. The researchers hoped that the performance would improve after the next round of NFHS and NSSO data is compiled.

The India State Hunger Index was compiled by IFPRI along with Germany-based Wethungerlife and the California University. They analysed hunger levels in 17 major states, which represent more than 95 per cent of the population.