Here’s something to keep in mind, as you vacuously shove snacks into your mouth hole and captivatingly watch India vs Pakistan in the ICC World Cup, Pakistan has already beaten us in one thing - The Global Hunger Index 2023.
Yes, Pakistan is at 81st, while we have slipped four places to 111th. Isn’t that great? In fact, all our neighbours, including Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have all fared quite well compared to us on that list. The only nations below us are - Timor-Leste, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Haiti, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Niger, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Madagascar, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Burundi and Somalia. Not a great company if one is trying to project itself as Vishwaguru.
Our Ministry of Women and Child Development has said that - “The GHI continues to be a flawed measure of hunger and does not reflect India’s true position. The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator Proportion of the Undernourished population (PoU) is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000,”
While it’s a matter of debate whether one is right over the other and whether we are a nation where over 80 crore people have been given free ration every month, for over a year. This means we have at least that many people dependent on govt handouts, and we have our govt helping that many people out so that they won’t go hungry. Either way, this kind of news in the global mediascape is bad for business. It’s bad for the country’s image, its currency and its labour costs. Politics aside, it’s always a good thing when the country folks are well fed and healthy; and we hope we get some data from the govt soon that vindicates them and proves their point. Till then, the GHI scores stand to be the final word for the world, its businesses and India’s image in the global diaspora.
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