Alarming high gender imbalance in China...

January 22, 2013 18:51
Alarming high gender imbalance in China...

The gender imbalance in China has remained at an alarmingly high ratio of 117 newborn boys for 100 girls in 2012, officials said on Tuesday. Moreover,the imbalance, which has remained far higher than the normal 103 to 107 ratio, has prompted renewed promises from the government to crack down on illegal selective abortions, while also triggering strong calls for China to discard its unpopular family planning restrictions.

According to census data released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, the gender ratio was 117.7 newborn boys for every 100 girls in 2012, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In fact, The National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) have said the ratio declined slightly - by 0.08 - last year. It described the figure as "still higher than the warning level."

to sat more, the widening gender imbalance, coupled with concerns over China's ageing labour force, has renewed calls for the government to relax family planning policies. Enforced in the early 1980s, and known widely as the "one-child policy" although the rules are more complex, the measures have been seen as a major reason behind the fast-widening gender imbalance.

Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said at a press conference on Friday that the government would need to come up with "an appropriate and scientific" family planning policy to address the ageing labour force and that they need to pay serious attention to this.

Gender imbalance is indeed a serious problem for China's future!

(AW:Samrat Biswas)

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