Deccan Herald published an op-ed by Senior research fellow Purnima Menon who writes that one could quibble with the index itself, but after all these years — all the way from 2006 — perhaps it is time to just accept that it will be released every year, and accept that it simply reflects the state of the component indicators that go into it. Those indicators are markers of societal challenges that really need all our attention. India can only improve its GHI ranking every year by increasing its GHI score. Doing so will require several focused efforts which Menon delves deeper into--focus on those indicators that affect the score the most; actions need to be amplified in the geographies where the risk of being stunted or wasted; build on success; focus on prevention, and invest in data. Every data point in a survey comes from a human being, a woman, a child. These numbers are, therefore, markers of the real lives of women, infants, children across India. There is no time to lose in asking whether we are doing all we can to improve those lives. Real action taken today will have impacts all the way to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2030.
