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unfavourable sex ratio
- Rajasree Pai Ramachandra Pai (13 April 2009)
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Killing girls is killing humanity
- Vikas Dhikav, Richa Gupta, Gynecologist, Gaziabad (UP) (13 April 2009)
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A silenced holocaust
- Alvaro Sanz, Maria L del Valle (19 April 2009)
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China and the 'one child policy'
- Kaz Ross (21 April 2009)
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Counting excess males
- Ethan Jennings Sherigin, Dr. Avraham Y. Ebenstein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University (16 June 2009)
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Rajasree Pai Ramachandra Pai, Resident University of Connecticut
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The unfavourable sex ratio of china appears to be a challenging issue which needs immediate attention. Enforcing the one child norm might be a contributing factor to the problem. The government and NGOs need to work together to create awareness on the issue,to ban prenatal screening except for medical reasons and to give financial aid to parents with a single female child. Competing interests: None declared |
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Vikas Dhikav, Senior Research Officer All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi-110029, INDIA, Richa Gupta, Gynecologist, Gaziabad (UP)
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We read the paper Zhu et al1 and agree that sex selective abortion can severely affect the Nation's sex ratio and will have social consequences2. It has long been realized that India has a special prediction for male sex. Females are oppressed by family members, devoid of their rights, subjected to domestic violence and huge amount of compensatory money called dowry needs to be paid by bride's father. Moreover, virginity of a girl is looked upon as a matter of pride and any kind of sexual advance made by her before marriage is looked down upon. Several girls are killed every year in India in the name of “honor killing”. These and some of other reasons lead to mass scale female feticide in India2. State has not been able to curb this menace in last 2 decades or so. Doctors too have been indifferent towards this problem3. However, recently, several medical organizations are taking up this ethical and moral issue. We feel that there is a need of Comprehensive National Program that could address this issue and can have the following components: a) There should be adequate nationwide incentive to have a girl child. Basic Education for the girl child should be made free. b) Generate a sense of equality in Males: Females among school children. c) In college going adults, education against dowry should be given. Colleges should have anti-dowry cells. d) Couple who married without taking dowry should appropriately be socially appreciated rewarded. e) Laws against dowry should properly be reinforced. f) Society should be sensitized by mass media so that there could be enough personal space for women in India. References 1. Wei Xing Zhu, Li Lu, and Therese Hesketh . China’s excess males, sex selective abortion, and one child policy: analysis of data from 2005 national intercensus survey BMJ 2009; 338: b1211 2. Singh S. Attitude change is vital to end female foeticide. Student BMJ 2003; 11: 342. 3. Dhikav V. Doctors in India are too bussiness oriented. Student BMJ 2003; 11: 342. Competing interests: None declared |
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Alvaro Sanz, Physician Hospital universitario del Rio Hortega, 47010 Valladolid, Spain, Maria L del Valle
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As it is shown in the original, in the absence of intervention, sex ratio at birth in China could be around 105 boys born for every 100 girls. The study includes 161109 births in twelve months, with a real sex ratio of 120. That implies that ten thousand girls were not born in the suited sample that represents only 1% of the total population. According to these data, we can assume that around one million girls were not born every year in China as they were mainly aborted because of their sex. And one million abortions a year for the last ten years suppose ten million people killed before birth. We can remember severe holocausts from the previous Century that renders fewer victims. Competing interests: None declared |
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Kaz Ross, Academic Hobart, Tasmania
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Zhu and Hesketh point out a phenomenon that has been known about China for quite some time, even by the Chinese government. Sex Selctive abortion is banned in China (although the ban is difficult to enforce). A 'Care for Girls' strategy has been introduced which aims to convince parents that having girls will not cause them financial/economic burdens or disadvantage. In addition, the government is trying to fix the social security system. Skewed sex ratios are also to be found in other countries in Asia but, interestingly, this fact is rarely reported. Competing interests: None declared |
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Ethan Jennings Sherigin, Ph.D. Candidate Univ. of Pennsyvlania Pop. Research Center, PA 19104, Dr. Avraham Y. Ebenstein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
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In a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, Zhu et al. (2009) estimate that there are perhaps 32 million males under the age of 20 in China. The authors appear to have reached this figure from the fact that 330,066 excess males were observed in the 2005 micro-census conducted in China under the age of 20. However, the article claims that this represents a 1% sample of China. In fact, the sample contains roughly 1.7 million observations, and therefore represents more than 1% of China’s population, and was specifically reported by the Chinese government to represent a 1.31% sample of the country. Based on this information, the actual number of excess males using the 2005 census sample should be closer to 25.2 million.
Competing interests: None declared |
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