The India State Hunger Index (ISHI) is a tool to calculate
hunger
In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic Human nutrition, nutritional needs for a sustaine ...
and
malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...
at the regional level in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It is constructed in the same fashion as the
Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that attempts to measure and track hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI is calculated annually, and its results a ...
(GHI) 2008 and was calculated for 17 states in India, covering more than 95 percent of the population.
The ISHI was developed by the
International Food Policy Research Institute
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in the early 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations ...
(IFPRI) and presented for the first time 2008 in conjunction with the n
on-governmental organization Wealthhungerlife and the Department of Economics,
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
.
According to the GHI, India has shown improvement between 2000 and 2020, however the level of hunger remains in the "serious" category.
Background
Despite the good economic performance, with over 200 million people who are
food insecure. India is home to the largest number of hungry people in the world. In the ranking of the
Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that attempts to measure and track hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI is calculated annually, and its results a ...
2017 it covers position 100 out of 119 ranked countries and has a "serious" (31.4) food security situation. The major problem in the country is the high prevalence of
underweight
An underweight person is a person whose body weight is considered too low to be healthy. A person who is underweight is malnourished.
Assessment
The body mass index, a ratio of a person's weight to their height, has traditionally been used ...
children under five, which is a result of low nutrition and educational status of women.
While there has been attention to hunger and
undernourishment
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...
at the central level, within India's political system, states are important political units with regard to the planning and execution of development programs. Thus unpacking the hunger index at the level of the federal states is an important tool to build awareness of the disparities in hunger among them. In addition, the variability of the relative contribution of the underlying components of the hunger index across the different Indian states can help to stimulate the discussion about the drivers of hunger in different state contexts.
Indicators and underlying data
The ISHI is constructed in the same fashion as the
Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that attempts to measure and track hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI is calculated annually, and its results a ...
which follows a multidimensional approach to measuring hunger and
malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...
.
It combines three equally weighted indicators:
# the proportion of undernourished as a percentage of the population (reflecting the share of the population with insufficient dietary intake);
# the prevalence of
underweight
An underweight person is a person whose body weight is considered too low to be healthy. A person who is underweight is malnourished.
Assessment
The body mass index, a ratio of a person's weight to their height, has traditionally been used ...
children under the age of five (indicating the proportion of children suffering from weight loss and / or reduced growth); and
# the
mortality rate of children under the age of five (partially reflecting the fatal synergy between dietary intake and unhealthy environments).
The ISHI uses two data sources for the estimation of the Indian state level: These are the first rounds of the
National Family Health Survey
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is an India-wide survey conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with the International Institute for Population Sciences serving as the nodal agency.
History
In 1992-93, t ...
(2005–2006) for India and the National Sample Survey data from 2004 to 2005.
It is calculated and presented for 17 major states, covering 95 percent of the country's population.
While the National Family Health Survey has a large enough sample size to yield representative estimates of the child underweight and mortality rates even for the smaller states and union territories in the country, the sample size of the National Sample Survey is insufficient for estimating undernourishment rates in these places. Therefore, the ISHI restricts the sample to those states for which it yields precise states level estimates.
Key findings
*ISHI 2008 scores for Indian states range from 13.6 ("serious") for
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...
to 30.9 ("extremely alarming") for
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
, indicating substantial variability among states in India. Punjab is ranked 34th when compared to the GHI 2008 worldwide country ranking, while Madhya Pradesh is ranked 82nd. In this state more people suffer from hunger than in Ethiopia or Sudan. 60 percent of the children are undernourished.
*All 17 states have ISHI scores that are "serious" to "extremely alarming" hunger categories. Twelve of the 17 states fall into the "alarming" category while Madhya Pradesh falls into "extremely alarming" category.
*ISHI scores are closely aligned with poverty, but there is little association with state level economic growth. High levels of hunger are seen in states that are performing well from an economic perspective.
*Inclusive economic growth and targeted strategies to ensure food sufficiency reduce child mortality and improve child nutrition are urgent priorities for all states in India.
2008 index
References
;Bibliography
*
Literature
* IFPRI/University of California/Welthungerhilfe (2008
The India State Hunger Index: Comparisons of Hunger across States
External links
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)Welthungerhilfe
{{Deprivation Indicators
Development studies
Health in India by state or union territory
Food politics
Poverty in India
Malnutrition in India