China is facing a huge gender ratio imbalance because the country’s one-child law has led parents to seek sex selective abortions, according to new research.
China’s government imposes a one-child restriction on parents in an effort to control the country’s population, but a cultural preference for sons and cheap access to ultrasound scans has led to many terminating pregnancies if they are expecting a daughter, despite sex selective terminations being illegal in the country.
The study published in the British Medical Journal claims China now has 32 million excess men over the age of 20, with the national gender ratio for one to four year olds at 126 male births for every 100 female deliveries. The normal ratio is 105 male births for every 100 females.
The research, carried out by staff at Zhejiang University and University College London, said drastic policy changes plus better enforcement of existing policy was needed in order to halt the trend.
The study looked at 2005 census information for more than four and a half million people under the age of 20. As well as discovering the overall gender ratio imbalance, the authors found there were geographical differences in gender ratio, with provinces Tibet and Xinjiang having close to normal male-to-female ratios, while Henan province had more than 140 male births to every 100 females.
However, ratios did not increase between 2000 and 2005 and ratios in many urban areas were decreasing to more normal levels.
Jilin University professors Tao Liu and Xing-yi Zhang said. "Encouragingly, it seems that the tradition of preferring sons is shifting with the socioeconomic changes that come with urbanisation and industrialisation."
To tackle further gender imbalances, researchers suggested permitting couples to have a second child following the birth of a daughter or relaxing the one-child policy overall, allowing parents to have larger families.
They also noted better enforcement was needed to stop abortions for sex selection purposes, but acknowledged it would be difficult to prove the motivation behind any individual termination.
One Response to “China’s one-child law leading to huge gender imbalances”