With 15% of the country's population 'under nourished', India has been ranked 97th in a list of 118 countries on the 2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI) released on Tuesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI). India is behind other South Asian countries like Nepal (72), Sri Lanka (84) and Bangladesh (90), though it is ahead of Pakistan, which ranks 107th on the index. China, at 29th position, is way ahead of all other South Asian countries. India was ranked 80th in a list of 104 countries the previous year.

The 2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI) suggests that 38.7% of Indian children under five years of age are stunted due to lack of food. According to GHI authors, if the current rate of decline continues, more than 45 countries — including India, Pakistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Afghanistan — will have “moderate” to “alar -ming” hunger scores in the year 2030. “Ending global hunger is certainly possible, but it's up to all of us ... (to) set the priorities right to ensure that govern- ments, the private sector and civil society devote the time and resources necessary,” says Shenggen Fan, director general of the Washington-based IFPRI.

World leaders had agreed on a 2030 deadline for ending global hunger last year as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals intended to tackle poverty, hunger and inequality. Although the hunger levels in developing countries have fallen 29% since 2000, the efforts to curb hunger must be accelerated in order to meet the international target. According to the report, hunger levels are “alarming” in seven countries, with the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad and Zambia experiencing the worst levels. The Index further points out that another 43 countries, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia, have “serious” hunger levels.