In the 2025 Global Hunger Index (GHI), India ranked 102nd out of 123 countries with a score of 25.8 — a level the index classifies as "serious".

The Government of India has rejected the GHI in past years as a flawed measure, pointing to programmes like POSHAN Abhiyaan, PM-POSHAN mid-day meals, and free foodgrain under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, and to its own Poshan Tracker covering crores of beneficiaries. Those are real programmes, and that critique deserves a fair hearing.

The numbers underneath the ranking

But the index is built partly on India’s own survey data. Child stunting is estimated around 32.9% and child wasting around 18.7% (drawing on the National Family Health Survey). Put plainly: roughly one in three Indian children is stunted, and child-wasting rates are among the highest in the world.

Whatever one thinks of a composite score, those child-nutrition figures come from domestic surveys, not a foreign ranking — and they describe a generation’s health.

Where the argument should go next

The most useful response to a disputed ranking isn’t to reject it — it’s to publish current, granular nutrition data and let the trend speak. If the programmes are working, the numbers will show it. That transparency is the common ground between the government’s position and its critics.