New Delhi: Speaking at a FICCI event in Hyderabad, Union minister Smriti Irani said that the Global Hunger Index – in which India stood at 111th out of 125 countries – was compiled by calling 3,000 people in India and asking if they were hungry. The Wire has reported on the report makers’ summary rejection of the Indian government’s assertions. However, this time, what also garnered outrage was Irani’s assertion that she had had a trying day and that she would have also said she was hungry had she been called on the phone on that day.While Congress has called Irani out for her “insensitivity” and for making a “mockery of hunger,” Irani’s claim that the Index functions this way is not correct.Here’s what Irani said:“For instance, Global Hunger Index that makes headlines now, many a people have said it’s all hogwash. How do they build that indice? 3,000 people in a country of a 140 crore get a phone call from Gallup and they are asked, ‘Are you hungry?’.Writing for The Wire, Banjot Kaur had noted in her report that this is not the first time that the Indian government has rejected this report.In its October 12 statement, the government had questioned the selection of the four parameters, among which is the opinion poll Irani referred to.Kaur quoted the government as having said that “Three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population.”Thus the government’s own assertion makes one aspect clear – which contradicts Irani’s claim of “how they build that” index: it depends on four parameters, not the single one on the opinion poll, as she indicated in the speech.Right afterwards, Irani said:“Now trust me, I have left my house in Delhi in the morning at 4 today. I got a flight at 5 to go to Kochi. I did a conclave there. Got a flight at 5 o’clock to come to this programme. By the time I get to anything called food, it will be 10 o’clock. If you would have called me anytime during the day today and asked from Gallup, “Are you hungry?” I’ll say, “Oh yes, I am.””This call that Irani claims she would have been compelled to attend while hungry aims to fix the ‘Proportion of Undernourished’ or PoU population. The Indian government has claimed that it is based on an opinion poll conducted on a “very small sample size of 3000.” The government’s reservations are in line with Irani’s claim.But, as Kaur writes in her report, the GHI report makers, in an emailed response to The Wire on October 13, had said that the PoU rate is just one-third of the total GHI score. More importantly for the scope of Irani’s assertions, the PoU is arrived from the study of several underlying parameters – and not just from the opinion poll.The Index considered food balance reports that, Kaur reports on the basis of the emailed responses, was partly arrived at using data sources officially given by the Indian government itself.Irani is thus publicly commenting against her own government’s data.However, since India’s latest relevant data was collected in 2011, the distribution of calorie intake in the population was estimated using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) survey data, for which the Gallup World Poll was used, the report makers told The Wire.Thus, this poll was part of an indicator which was a part of four indicators which ultimately contributed to the Index score. And not the sole indicator, as Irani claimed.This claim is also, as mentioned earlier, rendered false by the Indian government’s own objections to the other indicators – indicating at least that there are other indicators.No other government has disputed the GHI’s methodology.Irani also says:And that indice (sic) says Pakistan is better than India. Can you imagine?”In the Index, Pakistan does rank above India. At 102, it is nine spots above India. But in many categories, its performance is comparable to India’s. Its percentage of people suffering from child stunting (37.6%), for instance, is similar to India’s (35.5%). The Index reports notes Pakistan’s floods and its impact on crops, which directly affect food consumption. It also pays attention to Indian farmers’ particular struggles, without attempting to compare the two.The following video offers a deeper dive into the claims.
