COVID-19 has highlighted the fluid nature of vulnerability to hunger in India, bringing into focus both the extent and complexity. More people are hungry today than they were before March 2020. In the 2020 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 94th out of 107 countries.

Vulnerable groups like women domestic workers, daily wage migrant workers, slum dwellers and scores of others working in low skilled informal jobs have lost jobs and struggling to make ends meet. In rural India, the challenges have been further complicated due to monsoon floods.

Around 120 million children from the marginalised sections who relied on mid-day meals in schools are now going hunger. With child nutrition already a big concern, the closure of schools and anganwadi centres due to the lockdown had deep impact on these children, particularly when school meals are absent.