Some 811 million people suffer from hunger in the world and 41 million live on the brink of famine. Moreover, 47 countries, including 28 in Sub-Saharan Africa, will not even reach low hunger levels in the next eight years.
The World Food Programme’s latest Hunger Hotspots report shows that more than 43 million people in 38 countries are at risk of famine or a serious food crisis, unless they receive immediate life-saving support. Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen are the countries with the highest levels of hunger.
The 2021 Global Hunger Index (GHI), jointly compiled by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, is a tool designed to measure and track hunger levels on global, national, and regional levels. The aim is to raise awareness and act against hunger to reduce hunger around the world.
The 2021 GHI ranked Pakistan 92 among 116 countries with a score of 24.7, declaring its hunger levels ‘serious’. It, however, had registered a 23.7 per cent decline since 2000, showing its ‘accelerating’ progress in the fight against hunger.
India ranked 101st out of a total of 116 countries. With a score of 27.5, India is facing a serious level of hunger. Only 15 countries ranked worse than India; these are Papua New Guinea (102), Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111), Democratic Republic of Congo (112), Chad (113), Central African Republic (114), Yemen (115) and Somalia (116).
Whereas, in 2020, India ranked 94th among 107 countries trailing behind Pakistan (92nd rank), Bangladesh (76th rank), and Nepal (76th rank).
Most affected out of hunger are children suffering from undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality.
After Sub-Saharan Africa, the most vulnerable is South Asia; notably, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The region hosts the largest number of poor of the world. Bangladesh, once considered by the British Raj as a perpetual hunger-stricken region and by former West Pakistan as a liability with many mouths to feed, has performed the best in the region in the fight against hunger. Decades of political stability and economic growth provided jobs and business opportunities to its growing population and the nation is winning the fight against hunger.
Although India has achieved a remarkable economic growth, it has performed poorly on fight against poverty. The forefathers of India recognized that poverty and hunger constitute the serious most threat to its sovereignty. They went for a ‘ ‘bottom up’ socialist and nationalist economy based on state run enterprises and ‘Made in India’ concept to provide employment to its people and achieve autarky.
This did not work and after India’s economic collapse in the early 1990s, it made a U - turn and went for a ‘top down’ free economy under the leadership of Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh — expecting a trickle-down effect for poverty alleviation. This too has not worked so far. Though India has produced some multi-billion dollars billionaires, it has done little in its fight against hunger.
Pakistan never conceived and executed any state policy to fight against hunger. In the first many years after Independence, the nation adapted a free economy followed by a socialist economy under the rule of Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto. Since the last four decades the nation is more on a free economy path, expecting a trickle-down top to bottom effect to eliminate hunger.
The state has done little to eliminate hunger but the philanthropists of the nation have done a lot to make sure no one goes to sleep hungry in Pakistan. This has provided relief to some but the majority of such people do go to bed hungry in the country. State institutions and political leadership, legislators and all those who matter are not responsive to the plight of the hungry.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
The writer is a former President, Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry
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