Asian Son Preference Will Have Severe Social Consequences, New Studies Warn
Source: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Prenatal son selection in several Asian countries is likely to have severe social consequences in coming years, according to a new series of studies commissioned by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

Life could become harder for many girls and women outnumbered by males, as pressures to conform and comply increase. A growing number of men will be unable to find wives, which may lead to a rise in sexual violence and trafficking of women.

India and China, with the most dramatic imbalance between births of boys and girls, are stepping up efforts to address the issue. But authors of the reports say more concerted measures to promote gender equality are urgently needed.

+ Sex-Ratio Imbalance in Asia: Trends, Consequences and Policy Responses

• Executive Summary of Regional Analysis (PDF; 275 KB)
• Full Regional Analysis (PDF; 93 KB)

Individual country reports available for China, India, Nepal, and Viet Nam (PDFs).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Asia, Children and families, China, Gender and sexuality, Social and cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.