Viet Nam Human Rights
According to the department, the sex ratio at birth in the city has dropped from 117.6 boys per 100 girls in 2008 to 113.5 boys per 100 girls in 2017. In the first six months of 2018, the sex ratio at birth was 113.2 males per 100 females.
However, Hanoi’s rate of sex imbalance at birth remains high, reaching an alarming level in several suburban districts.
A survey in Long Bien district showed that 10 out of 14 wards recorded a significant sex imbalance at birth in 2017, such as Sai Dong ward with the rate of 137 boys per 100 girls and Viet Hung ward with 126 boys per 100 girls.
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| Photo: dantri.com.vn |
The incidence of sex imbalance at birth has increased sharply in cases of families who have the third child. The gender ratio at birth in these cases rises to 140-163 boys per 100 girls.
Head of the Hanoi Population and Family Planning Department Ta Quang Huy said one reason for the situation was demographic differences between rural and urban areas and the difference in education level as well as living standard of each region.
Sex imbalance at birth in the city was also caused by the longstanding preference of males to females, and by the tendency for suburban parents to want more children, he said.
The gender imbalance would seriously impact the country’s socio-economic development as well as the life of women, men, families and communities, experts said. A shortage of women would make it difficult for men to find a wife and likely to have to stay single, which would lead to social consequences, including rising gender inequality, women’s early marriage, re-marriage and divorce.
The imbalance also causes an increase in prostitution, trafficking of women and children and violence against women resulting from men’s social and sexual dissatisfaction. The paucity of women could cause a shortage of labour in particular occupations such as preschool or primary school teacher and nurse because of sexist ideas that these positions are suitable only for women.
According to Dr Hoang Duc Hanh, the health department’s deputy director, districts, wards and towns are responsible for inspecting medical facilities offering ultrasound scans in the localities. The city will also set up an inspection team to conduct unexpected and periodic inspections in the localities.
Population experts said that it was necessary pay more attention to educating couples of child-bearing age and increasing the supply of contraception.
In addition, it is necessary to develop supportive policies to improve the quality of social welfare for elderly people in order to reduce the pressure to have a son to take care of them, and support poor couples who give birth to girls.
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According to UN statistics, there are 117 million girls missing around the world. Where have they gone? Many of them are left on the sides of roads, drowned, maimed and thrown in trash bins. But even more of them have been aborted.The reason? They were girls, not boys.
Sex-selective abortion, also colloquially known as “gendercide,” is a huge problem across Asia. A traditional preference for sons, combined with harsh population control measures, has led to the wholesale destruction of little girls.
Parents’ preference for sons is common in countries in East Asia through South Asia, to the Middle East and North Africa. Sons are preferred because they have a higher wage-earning capacity (especially in agrarian economies), they continue the family line and they usually take responsibility for care of parents in illness and old age.
For centuries, son preference has led to postnatal discrimination against girls; this has resulted in practices ranging from infanticide to neglect of health care and nutrition, often ending in premature mortality.
In countries where there is a combination of son preference, a small-family culture and easy access to sex-selective technologies, very serious and unprecedented sex-ratio imbalances have emerged.
The consequences of this male surplus in the reproductive age group are still largely speculative.
Men will be unable to marry, in societies where marriage is regarded as virtually universal, and where social status and acceptance depend, in large part, on being married and creating a new family.
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