January 12, 2007
Asia's Gender Imbalance
China, India, and other countries pay a high price for traditional beliefs about boys and girls
India and China both have made tremendous strides in recent years. Both countries now have annual economic growth rate in the 6 – 10% range, a growing entrepreneurial class, and increasing technological prowess.
However, Asia’s two economic giants are also both incredibly backward in one regard: the status of women. In India as well as in China, a significant portion of the female population is denied even the right to exist. Perhaps the most horrible aspect of the situation is that these girls are killed not by strangers---but by their own parents, either prior to birth, or shortly after birth.
In India, about 10 million girls have been killed either through feticide or infanticide in the past twenty years. The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) estimates that as many as 7,000 female infants may eliminated from the Indian population each day.
30 million surplus males in China
The situation is almost as dire in China. Without tampering, sex ratios at birth are about 105 males for every 100 females. (This balances out as the population reaches marriageable age because males have a higher mortality rate.) But sex-selective abortions in China have wildly skewed these ratios. Some rural provinces in China now have a male:female birth ratio as high as 130:100. China already has about 30 million extra males----roughly equal to the populations of Canada and the U.S. state of California.
Behind the numbers
In both China and India, there is a traditional preference for male births. In the PRC, the communist government’s one-child-per-family rule has exacerbated traditional prejudices against female infants. The problem is most acute in the countryside, but the male:female ratio has reached 109:100 even in cosmopolitan Beijing.
In India, sex selection is tied to traditional norms as well as financial considerations. When a young woman marries in India, the bride’s family must provide the groom’s family with an expensive dowry. (The practice has been banned by the Indian government but it continues nonetheless.)
Although China and India stand out because of their huge populations, sex-selective abortions have become a problem in other parts of Asia as well. In Vietnam, the ratio recently ticked upward to 107:100. In South Korea, the ratio is 108:100. Skewed ratios also exist in Pakistan and Taiwan.
(It is important to note that there are exceptions in Asia. Singapore exhibits no tendency toward sex selection. In Japan, moreover, surveys reveal a slight preference for girls among expectant parents.)
Implications for East and West
For Asian societies in which sex selection is practiced, the negative consequences are monumental and looming----which is why both New Delhi and Beijing are seriously concerned about the problem. (In abortion-friendly China, some over-the-counter abortion drugs have been banned, for fear they could be used by couples wishing to eliminate female fetuses.) Between now and 2020, China and India will each have to absorb a giant wave of unmarried, restless males. This is a recipe for widespread social problems, from violent crime to forced prostitution. The absence of so many females will also have a major impact on the economies of both nations.
For the West, the impact of skewed gender ratios in Asia will be less immediate but nevertheless troubling. What will the governments of India and China (especially the latter) do with so many restless males? Historically, governments have embarked on military adventures to keep young unmarried males occupied. This doesn’t bode well for our relationship with China over the next ten to twenty years.
Where are the Western voices of protest?
Western governments and activists are rightly concerned about the problem of international human trafficking. However, the wholesale elimination of 10 million girls in India and 30 million girls in China is an even more horrific crime against humanity.
Why aren’t Western activist groups on the Right and the Left stepping atop their lofty soapboxes to make more noise about this issue?
Most of all, why have feminist organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW) gone completely AWOL regarding the horrors of sex selection? They should be the ones leading the fight.
Notes:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2006/12/644180/
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/12/content_5600294.htm
http://www.sikhsangat.org/ssn/publish/India_18/India_Kills_10_million_girls_in_20_years.shtml
Postscript: In China and India, a lucrative black market for ultrasound machines and sex selective abortions fuel the practice. Sadly, there are also Western medical practitioners who are profiting from gender selection (albeit through more sophisticated methods). While researching the above article, I came across the Los Angeles-based Fertility Institutes, which has a gender selection program. (Notice that they also have a Chinese-language website.) If this offends you (as it does me), feel free to send them an angry email.