India still has along way to go in tackling the issue of hunger and malnutrition. Ranked 66 out of 88 countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index, released by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on Tuesday, India's position remains “alarming.”
“The major threat of hunger is in 33 countries, including India,” the report underlined. China, with 7.1 points, has has been ranked 15th.
It, however, showed that India’s hunger rate dropped to 23.7 points from 32.5 points in 1990. Congo showed the highest hunger rate with 42.7 points at 88th place. Mauritius, with only 5 points has been placed at number 1, the report said.
Among other Asian countries, Bangladesh ranked 70 with a score of 25.2 points, while Pakistan has been placed at 61 with 21.7 points. Nepal at 57th position scored 20.6 points and Sri Lanka scored 15 points at the 39th place.
Countries scoring between 20 and 30 points are in an alarming condition, the report highlighted. Countries were ranked on a 100-point scale, with zero being the best score having no hunger and 100 being the worst.
The report noted that “hunger is closely related to poverty.” Countries with high levels of hunger are overwhelmingly low or low-middle income countries, it added.
However, the report showed that the global poverty rate has dropped by almost one fifth to 15.2 points in 2008 GHI from 18.7 points in 1990 GHI.
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