Hyderabad: Everyone Deserves to Eat. It has been estimated that almost 800 million people in the world don’t have enough food to eat. This is quite a staggering figure. In 2011, The Hunger Project started an initiative known as World Hunger Day. Celebrating sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty is the aim of this day. World Hunger Day is observed globally on 28 May every year. World Hunger Day is an initiative by The Hunger Project, first started in the year 2011.
World Hunger Day 2024 Theme: Thriving Mothers. Thriving World.
Around the world, women and children are facing malnutrition due to war, famine, climate change and more. Over 1 billion adolescent girls and women suffer from malnutrition today. The effects are passed down from mother to child. Malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished babies. These children suffer irreversible impacts on their brain development and futures.
The facts about Hunger globally:-
- The world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet 828 million people go hungry every day
- 42% of people globally cannot afford a healthy diet (SOFI 2023).
- 1 billion girls and women globally face under-nutrition (UNICEF 2023).
- 149 million children under 5 are stunted (WHO 2023).
- 2.3 billion people — 29.6% of the global population — don’t have adequate access to food.
- 9 million people die from hunger-related causes every year; many are children under the age of 5.
- Hunger hits children especially hard: 45 million children under the age of five suffer wasting.
- In 2022, the number of people facing acute hunger increased by 25% in just three months due to the conflict in Ukraine.
- Even if we rebound from the economic fallout of the pandemic, the UN predicts that we’ll fall well short of our goal for Zero Hunger by 2030. At the end of this decade, it estimates there will still be 670 million people facing hunger.
Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2024
The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2024 confirms the enormity of the challenge of achieving the goal of ending hunger by 2030. In 2023, nearly 282 million people or 21.5 percent of the analysed population in 59 countries/territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity requiring urgent food and livelihood assistance. This additional 24 million people since 2022 is explained by expanded analysis coverage as well as deteriorating acute food insecurity in some countries outweighing improvements in others.
Food Waste Index Report 2024
The UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report 2024 highlights that latest data from 2022 shows 1.05 billion tonnes of food went to waste. Some 19 per cent of food available to consumers was lost overall at retail, food service, and household levels.That is in addition to around 13 per cent of food lost in the supply chain, as estimated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), from post-harvest up to the point of sale.
Most of the world’s food waste comes from households, totalling 631 million tonnes – or up to 60 per cent – of the total food squandered. The food service and retail sectors were responsible for 290 and 131 million tonnes accordingly. On average, each person wastes 79 kilogrammes of food annually. This is the equivalent of 1.3 meals every day for everyone in the world impacted by hunger, the report authors underscore.
High-income, upper-middle income, and lower-middle income countries differ in average levels of household food waste by just seven kilogrammes per capita per year. The bigger divide comes in the variations between urban and rural populations. In middle-income countries, for example, rural areas are generally wasting less. One possible explanation is in the recycling of food scraps for pets, animal feed, and home composting in the countryside. The report recommends focusing efforts on strengthening food waste reduction and composting in cities.
Key Facts About Hunger In India:-
In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 111th out of the 125 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2023 GHI scores. With a score of 28.7 in the 2023 Global Hunger Index, India has a level of hunger that is serious. "India has the highest child wasting rate in the world, at 18.7 per cent, reflecting acute under-nutrition," the report based on the index stated. Wasting is measured based on children's weight relative to their height.
According to the index, the rate of undernourishment in India stood at 16.6 per cent and under-five mortality at 3.1 per cent. The report also said that the prevalence of anaemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years stood at 58.1 per cent.
Rice, wheat, milk and sugarcane — India is among the largest producers of these agricultural commodities, yet millions are still starving in the world’s most populous country. India, with a population of 1.4 billion, accounts for one quarter of the world’s undernourished and is home to over 190 million hungry people. A big part of the problem lies with logistical setbacks.
The only reason is because there is no supply chain. India’s “poor infrastructure” has led to almost 40% of post harvest losses for some products, according to data from the International Trade Administration, part of the U.S. Commerce Department. Vegetables and fruits expire more quickly when there’s a lack of cold storage, and hundreds of tonnes of food grains risk rotting in warehouses. Other reasons for India’s low productivity include “inefficient” food distribution systems, erratic and unusual weather, heavy regulations as well as lack of education and training for farmers, the ITA said.
Hunger fighting initiatives in India
Eat Right India Movement: An outreach activity organized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for citizens to nudge them towards eating right.
POSHAN Abhiyan: Launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2018, it targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls).