China's rising gender imbalance may leave mlns of men with no wives

China's unbalanced sex ratio may cause serious consequences as millions of men will be unlikely to find their spouses around 2020, said a Chinese demographer.

A growing gender imbalance among newborns will cause consequences much more serious than expected, said Prof. Mu Guangzhong with the population research institute of Beijing University in an article published by the latest issue of Study Times.

According to statistics of the State Commission for Population and Family Planning (SCPFP), there will be 25 million men who fail to have wives around 2020 if the current gender imbalance keeps on.

The article in the official periodical of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China warned that efforts by the central government to improve females' status may only help alleviate the problem.

Mu's views are likely to prompt the government to consider more forceful measures to reverse the trend after the legislature scrapped an amendment to the Criminal Law to outlaw sex-selective abortions.

The aborted amendment called for fines and prison terms of up to three years for aborting a fetus based on gender of the fetus, but some lawmakers argued that it is hard to collect evidence and pregnant women should enjoy the right to know the sex of their unborn child.

In China, where sons are traditionally preferred and most couples can have only one child, a number of prospective parents used to abort their pregnancy if tests showed the fetus was female.

As a result, there are 119 boys born for every 100 girls in China, much higher than the global ratio of 103 to 107 boys for 100 girls.

Only seven out of 31 provinces, regions and municipalities report a gender ratio below 110 boys to 100 girls and boys under the age of nine outnumber girls in the same age group by 12.77 million.

Analysts fear that the shortage of women as a result of growing gender imbalance may lead to more prostitutes or social crimes in the future.

SCPFP's vice minister Zhao Baige said officials would be sent around the country to monitor gender ratios among newborn babies and the efficiency of measures against the sex imbalance later this year.

The government will introduce a system to evaluate local officials' efforts in controlling gender imbalance and those who have bad performance will be punished, she said.

The commission has launched a program called "Care for Girls" in 2003 in 24 pilot counties provides social benefits, including cash payments, to families with only girls, in order to boost the status of girls and women.

The program is credited with reducing the boys-to-girls ratio in those counties from 133.8/100 to 119.6/100 over the past three years.

It will be promoted to all provinces, regions and municipalities this year to curb the male-dominated gender imbalance.

Source: Xinhua