Feeding Hungry in India

Pledge Foundation provides free food to the most vulnerable; to eradicate hunger, feed the hungry, reduce malnutrition, and reduce food wastage by collaborating with stakeholders.

In the Global Hunger Index 2020, India ranked 94 among 107 nations, respect to last year where India was 102 out of 117 countries. It is in the ‘serious’ hunger category. Experts in this sector are blaming lack of effective monitoring, poor implementation processes, a siloed approach to tackling malnutrition and poor performance by large states for this low ranking.

As per the report, 14 percent of India’s population is undernourished. India also recorded a 37.4 percent stunting among children under five and a wasting rate of 17.3 percent. The under-five mortality rate stood at 3.7 percent. Wasting is children who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.

Stunting is children under age 5 who have low height for their age, showing chronic undernutrition. Data from 1991 through 2014 for Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan showed that stunting is concentrated among children from households facing multiple forms of deprivation, including poor dietary diversity, low levels of maternal education, and household poverty.

Mere calorie provision should not be fixed for hunger and undernutrition. All stakeholders steered by robust leadership must pay attention to making balanced healthy diets which are climate-friendly, affordable and accessible to all.