Global Hunger Index report irresponsible, mischievous: RSS body demands action against publishers

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Sunday termed the 2022 Global Hunger Index report “irresponsible and mischievous” and urged the Union government to take action against its publishers for “defaming” India.

India was ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2022, much behind its South Asia neighbours, with the child wasting rate at 19.3 per cent, the highest in the world.

The report was recently released by the Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, non-government organisations from Ireland and Germany respectively.

“The German non-governmental organization Welt Hunger Hilfe has once again released the ranking of 121 countries based on the World Hunger Index, prepared in a very irresponsible way to defame India,” the SJM, an RSS affiliate, said, reacting to the report.

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“Far from reality, this report is not only faulty but also ridiculous not only from the point of view of data, but also from the point of view of analysis and methodology. Earlier in October last year, India was ranked 101 in the list of 116 countries,” it added.

The SJM asserted that India had firmly opposed Global Hunger Index released last year in October, and had questioned the data and methodology used in evaluation of the country.

“The World Food Organization (FAO) had then said these errors would be corrected. But once again using the same wrong data and methodology, this year's report has been released,” the RSS affiliate said.

The 2022 Global Hunger Index makes malafide intention of its publishers clear, it charged.

“Swadeshi Jagran Manch once again expresses its anguish against this report and urges upon the government to reject this report and take appropriate action against the organisations, which is defaming India by spreading falsehood about India's food security,” SJM said in a statement.

On Saturday, the Centre rejected the report's findings, alleging it is an effort to taint the country's image and the index suffers from serious methodological issues and is an "erroneous measure" of hunger.

As the report kicked a minor storm, the Opposition leaders said the government must take responsibility for its "failure".

SJM co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said India is not only self-sufficient in food grains and other food products today but it is also a net exporting country.

The total food grain production in India in the year 2021-22 is 3,160 lakh tonnes, which is 227 kg per capita, he said.

He said the Union government has been running the world's largest food security programme, in which not only free food, but grains and pulses too are being distributed to 80 crore countrymen for the last 28 months.

Besides, supplementary nutrition has also been provided to about 7.71 crore children and 1.78 crore pregnant women and lactating mothers under Anganwadi services, by 14 lakh Anganwadis, he said.

“The Global Hunger Index report is completely unusable for academics and seems to be an attempt to defame some developing countries including India and their leadership. The report looks more like a political stunt,” Mahajan said.

The need of the hour is that such false reports should be “thoroughly exposed” and “true data” be presented based on ground reality, “free from the juggling of statistics”, he added.