A worrying lack of women in Asia

Asia is missing 90 millions of women. The lack of women is particularly important in China and India, but also in other Asian countries. In most Asian societies, girls are not welcome. The phenomenon is stronger with the birth decreasing which offers less chances to have children of both sexes (moreover in China with the “single child” policy). Asian families’ preference for a son is not new, and the female infanticide exists for a long time. However, girls’ births have strongly decreased during the last decades, due to abortion. With the technical progress, it is easier now not to have a girl. Unwillingness for girls is also observed by a lack of care for female children which leads to an abnormal rate of girls’ deaths.
Asian societies obey to patriarchal systems, and girls are submitted to their husband and his family. It is the son who transmits the surname, while the girl is only passing in her family. Her destiny is to belong to her husband’s family. That’s why a Chinese proverb says: “To bring up a girl is like to cultivate the neighbour’s field”. For the Indians, it remains to “water the neighbour’s garden”. The earth repartition system is in favour of the son in China, while in India the dower tradition leads to ruin families which take debts for their daughter marriage. This girls’ reject can also be explained by Hinduism: the son must organise the funeral traditions, and parents who do not have a son are condemned to an eternal wandering. This lack of women will force a lot of men to stay bachelors in the next years. There are already some women selling connexions, particularly Viet, but as well from parts of India or China. Associations denounce kidnappings, rapes, or forced prostitution.
Governments try to fight this phenomenon. The “Prenatal diagnosis techniques Act” adopted in 1994 by the Indian state condemns the divulgation of baby’s gender before birth. However, the law is not respected, and clinics are specialised in clandestine female foetus abortion. A doctor was condemned to a prison sentence for the first time in 2006 under this law. In China, campaigns are driven to change mentalities, and financial help is given to families which have a daughter. But tradition is very strong and mentalities very slow to change. The tendency is changing in South Korea, other countries must now follow.

Some numbers:
· Asia: 103.9 men for 100 women
Rest of the world: 96.9 men for 100 women
· Biological norm: 105 boys born for 100 girls
China: 117 boys born for 100 girls (until 138 boys for 100 girls in some parts of the country)
· In China, girls’ death rate is 28% upper than boys’ death rate (biologically, boys’ death rate is a bit more important than girls’)