Number of undernourished in India declines to 224.3 million, says UN report

United Nations: The number of undernourished people in India has declined in the last 15 years to 224.3 million in 20192021, according to a UN report, which also said that there are more obese adults and anaemic women in the world’s second most populous country.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report, issued on Wednesday by UN agencies Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), said that the number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report said that in India, the number of undernourished people declined to 224.3 million in 2019–21 from 247.8 million in 2004-06.

It said that the number of children under 5 years of age who are stunted declined to 36.1 million in 2020 from 52.3 million in 2012, the number of children under five years of age who are overweight declined to 2.2 million in 2020 from three million in 2012.