Introduction

The Global Hunger Index (GHI), prepared by IFPRI, ranks India as 55 among 76 countries based on data for 2014, which is an improvement from its rank in 2013. While improvements have been significant in the last decade (India has seen the sharpest decrease in its Hunger Index compared to any other country), the country's situation is still categorized as ‘serious’ and further improvements are needed. In comparison with its South Asian neighbours, India ranks lower than Sri Lanka and Nepal (39 and 44 ranks, respectively) and only slightly higher than Bangladesh and Pakistan, which are jointly ranked at 57 (IFPRI, 2015).

This trend is similar when one looks at other related indicators such as severely underweight children under five years, child mortality, undernourishment, stunted children, wasting and other nutrition measures. According to IFPRI (2015), 30.7 per cent of children below five years in India are underweight, which is an improvement from 44.8 per cent in 1993–1997. Underweight children under the age of five are 12.8 per cent in Bhutan, 21.6 per cent in Sri Lanka, 29.1 per cent in Nepal, 31.6 per cent in Pakistan and 36.8 per cent in Bangladesh.

At the all India level the trends seem to be encouraging although further improvements are necessary, the trends at the state level are divergent and discouraging. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development and UNICEF (2015), it was found that while at the all India level 29 per cent of children below five years are underweight, at the state level, this ranges from 14 per cent in Manipur to as high as 42 per cent in Jharkhand (Figure 4.1). States such as Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have higher rates of underweight children compared to the all India average. In the case of stunting also, while all India rate is around 39 per cent, states such as Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have a higher proportion with Uttar Pradesh having 51 per cent of children with stunting. Kerala has the lowest stunting rate of 20 per cent.