Pakistan’s abysmal ranking on the Global Hunger Index - Pangs of hunger

The annual Global Hunger Index, conducted by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, finds the problem in Pakistan is as bad as ever. The country was ranked 106th out of 119 developing countries, with only Afghanistan the only Asian country placed below us. This is virtually unchanged from Pakistan’s ranking last year, when we stood at 107 out of 118 countries. The index measures four indices – the proportion of undernourished people in the general population, the prevalence of child morality, child stunting and child wasting. By all these measures, Pakistan is facing a serious crisis and seemingly doing little to tackle it.

The World Food Programme has estimated that 43 percent of the country is food insecure while one-fifth of the population faces severe shortages of food. The problem is only likely to become worse in the near future. Already we are facing the consequences of global climate change. Extreme weather events like drought and flooding have become more frequent and the state has no strategy for dealing with it. The Global Hunger Index found that Tharparkar has the highest levels of poverty and malnourishment. This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has witnessed the regular famines in the area over the past five years, where the ravages of regular droughts are compounded by minimal relief efforts

World Food Day, which fell yesterday, should have prompted the state to rethink its approach to combating hunger. The focus of successive governments has been on a growth-centric economic strategy which emphasises large-scale infrastructure projects like power plants and motorways. Important though they may be, they should not be prioritised over ensuring there is enough food for the population. The government needs to do a better job of ensuring that fertilisers and pesticides are not adulterated. The agricultural sector, which has suffered greatly because of the over-valued rupee, needs to be revived and there should be diversification of the crops we grow. Our problem is not food production, in which we are sufficient, but the uneven distribution of food. Poverty and lack of nutritional literacy bar people from access to the food they need. As always happens in such situations, it is women and children who are disproportionately affected. Social welfare programmes, such as the Benazir Income Support Programme, should be expanded to subsidise food and special care needs to be taken of internally-displaced people. Pakistan’s abysmal ranking on the Global Hunger Index should be taken as a warning to act before it is too late.