Learning with the Times: Why hunger around the world is rising again

World hunger rose for the third straight year in 2017, jeopardising the progress made to end the scourge of food insecurity that affects vast swathes of the planet. While scientific advancement has ensured great leaps in food production, the causes behind the latest spurt in global hunger are conflict and climate change. A look…
IS THE NUMBER OF UNDERNOURISHED PEOPLE WORLDWIDE DECLINING ?
With increasing global wealth one may assume that hunger has been declining over the years.That, however, is not true. Income inequality is increasing and, hence, despite an increase in overall wealth for certain people, the ability to access food has decreased. And not just income inequality, but conflicts, adverse climate and worsened economic conditions, too, have increased the number of undernourished people in some regions. The recent ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018’ report estimates that in 2017, 10.9% of the world’s population was undernourished. This translates to 821 million people, which is at the same level as that in 2010. Countries in South America and Africa have largely contributed to this increase.

HOW HAVE INDIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS PERFORMED ON COMBATING HUNGER?
The number of undernourished people has declined in China, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka but has increased in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. However, India still accounts for the world’s largest population of undernourished people and is home to about one in every five undernourished persons.

IS CLIMATE CHANGE CONTRIBUTING TO WORLD HUNGER?
The food security report points to the role of climate variability and extremes in fuelling global hunger. It says that the number of extreme climate-related disasters has doubled since the early 1990s, with an average of 213 of these events occurring every year during 1990– 2016. Additionally, the nature of rainy seasons is also changing. These conditions have an adverse impact on agricultural productivity. Price hikes of essential food, even for a short period, significantly reduces the access to food for underprivileged population.
HOW DOES INDIA DO ON THE OTHER HUNGER INDICATORS?
Indicators of child health are often considered a key pointer for measuring access to nutritious food. Unfortunately, here India paints a sad picture. The latest estimate shows that India is the home of more than 50% of the world’s ‘wasted’ children (child underweight for his/her height) and more than 30% of the world’s stunted children (child shorter for his/her age). In terms of prevalence, both wasting and stunting in India will fall under WHO’s classification that indicates a severe public health issue.