India may be the second fastest growing economy in the world but it still has a long way to go in eradicating hunger where it is ranked at 94th position well behind neighbouring China and Pakistan, a global report says.

According to the latest Global Hunger Index 2007 from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), although India has improved its score of 25.03 on the index compared to 33.73 in 1990, it is lagging behind China and Pakistan ranked at 47th and 88th positions, out of the total list 118 countries, respectively.

During 1990-2007 period, China bettered its score to 8.37 from 12.77 while Pakistan improved to 22.7 from 25.73.

The index is mainly based on proportion of undernourished in the population, prevalence of underweight in children under five years and those under-five mortality rate.

1 in 7 go hungry

“One in seven people go to bed hungry every day. That’s 854 million people worldwide. Hunger is one of the world’s major problems and therefore one of its most important challenges,” say the report’s authors.

Besides, India’s score on the progress indicator of the Global Hunger Index is 0.496.

The country managed to reduce hunger by 8.7 since 1990 whereas the reduction target is 17.6 for the period from 1990-2015.

Libya is at the top of the list with a score of 0.87 this year whereas it had a score of 2.70 in 1990.

“In India, where the large majority of South Asia’s population lives, economic growth in the agricultural sector has lagged considerably behind growth in other sectors over recent years. This has had a negative effect on progress in alleviating poverty and hunger in rural areas,” says the report.

Further, it adds that members of the lower castes and certain ethnic minorities continue to be discriminated against in society, and are therefore disadvantaged with regard to educational opportunities and the labour market.

Interestingly, Cuba has made the maximum progress in eradicating hunger.

It has a score of 0.971 on the Global Hunger Index Progress Indicator and has already reduced to 2.20 on the index in 2007 compared to 5.90 in 1990.

Malnutrition

On malnutrition in the South Asia region, the report says that: “In some parts of India, for instance, male family members eat first and women make do with the leftovers. Children of undernourished and anaemic mothers have a higher risk of being born underweight”.

Moreover, 40 per cent of the world’s underweight children under five live in India while more than half of all children with low birth weight are born in South Asia.

In addition, the report points out that improvements in certain Asian countries are not in proportion to the economic boom and that poorest stratum benefits much less than the wealthier section of the population.

“Here specific measures to eradicate malnutrition — particularly among the children — are called form,” the report says.