India ranks below Nepal & Pakistan in hunger index; Rahul accuses ‘Centre of filing pockets of its friends’

New Delhi: In a major setback to growth story, India has been ranked 94th position among 107 countries on the Global Hunger Index, which means it has fared much worse than neighbours like Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Global Hunger Index, measuring the level of malnutrition in over 100 countries placed India much below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (73), Bangladesh (75) and Afghanistan (88).

Rahul attacks Modi govt

Latching on to the report, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Modi government for India’s poor show in global hunger ratings. Congress leader alleged that the Centre is busy “filling the pockets of its special friends” and that is why the country”s poor are hungry.

“India”s poor are hungry because the government is busy in filling the pockets of some of its special friends,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

भारत का ग़रीब भूखा है क्योंकि सरकार सिर्फ़ अपने कुछ ख़ास ‘मित्रों’ की जेबें भरने में लगी है। pic.twitter.com/MMJHDo1ND6

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 17, 2020

He also put out a graph which showed India ranking lower than its neighbours including Pakistan (88), Nepal (73) and Bangladesh (75).

India scored 27.2 on GHI, see countries which are behind India

With a GHI score of 27.2, levels of hunger in India fall under the ‘serious’ category, the report said.

The GHI report, which reflects data from 2015-19, was jointly prepared by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.

GHI values are determined by four indicators – undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality.
The countries that fall below India in the index include Korea (96), Rwanda (97), Nigeria (98), Afghanistan (99), Lesotho (100), Sierra Leone (101, Liberia (102), Mozambique (103), Chad (107) among others.