100,000 Missing Women – Part 2
November 29 | Posted by mrossol | Abortion, Social EngineeringWSJ 11/28/2015
Somvir Sain, 38, a driver for a politician in Haryana, a north Indian state with one of the country’s highest sex ratios, has been looking for a wife for 12 years, but in vain. Neither he nor his three brothers have found brides, he says. He has even traveled to several nearby poorer states to try to buy a bride, a common practice, but couldn’t settle on a price and arrangement, he says. Prices ranged from about $400 to $1,500, he says. He offered the lower end of the range but no family accepted. Most wanted him to stay for a few weeks to get to know them, and he says he didn’t have enough vacation time.
“I feel badly for my mother who has to do all of the housework and wash all of my clothes at her age because I can’t find a wife,” he says. “I feel sad thinking of never having children and my family not continuing after me.” Mr. Sain with his mother, Shanti Sain, and his brother Danand Sain, who also is looking for a wife. Mr. Sain with his mother, Shanti Sain, and his brother Danand Sain, who also is looking for a wife. Photo: Vivek Singh for The Wall Street
At the same time, educated, affluent women in Asian nations such as South Korea, Singapore and Japan choose to take what is being called a “flight from marriage,” by remaining single or in unofficial relationships. In much of Asia, the social stigma remains strong against having children outside of marriage, and so staying single almost always means staying childless.
Both China and India have acknowledged the need for action. India has strengthened laws against sex detection of fetuses and enacted legislation aimed at gender equality. In China, the government in 2000 began developing a nationwide program called Care for Girls Campaign. It offered financial incentives to couples with daughters and clamped down on sex detection of fetuses during the second pregnancy, in which female feticide was more common, according to demographers.
Just last month, China announced it was abandoning its one-child policy, believed to be a significant contributor to skewed ratios.
There are some hopeful signs. In China, the ratio of male to female babies, rising in three decades to 120 males for every 100 female babies in 2008, has plateaued or declined slightly since. The sex ratio was 115.9 last year, the lowest it has been since 2001.
It is the same with Indian states with the worst sex ratios. Haryana’s sex ratio of 122 boys for each 100 girls in 2001 fell to about 120 in 2011, the most recent census. India calculates sex ratios from birth to 6 years old.
Still, bringing about change is “a slower process in China. It’s even slower in India,” notes Monica Das Gupta, an ex-demographer at the World Bank now at the University of Maryland. Both countries are much larger and more diverse than South Korea.
Even if the sex ratio at birth were to return to normal, hundreds of millions of Asian men will still remain single in the ensuing decades. More than 21% of Chinese men would still be unmarried at 50 in 2070, while in India the number would be nearly 15%, Dr. Guilmoto estimates.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/asia-struggles-for-a-solution-to-its-missing-women-problem-1448545813
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