The "one child" policy in China has led to a sharp increase in the number of men. Now Beijing is taking a series of steps to encourage families to have girls * The government will punish doctors and hospitals that perform tests that allow the couple to know the sex of the fetus
The Chinese "one child" policy has several problematic aspects. One of the most horrific of them is the murder of millions of female fetuses. Because of this, the ratio between the number of boys and the number of girls in China has become unnaturally skewed, and in 2000 it ranged from 119-117 boys for every 100 girls - as the Chinese newspapers "China Daily" and "People's Daily" recently reported. The number of boys is a fifth greater than the number of girls, because female fetuses are often aborted, or female infants are killed immediately after birth.
Chinese officials used to boast that since China started the "one child" policy in the late 70s, 300 million births have been avoided; Sources who support "family planning" in the West, who see global "overpopulation" as a threat no less serious than global warming, praised China for its policy. However, now even Chinese officials are beginning to admit that the vast majority of the 300 million pregnancies were of female fetuses.
The situation is so serious that now the Chinese government is starting to take measures. At the beginning of August, the "National Conference for Population and Family Planning" launched an experimental project called "Looking after the girls", which will operate by providing incentives in several regions of the country. The incentives will include a cash payment to couples who decide to give birth to their daughter and allow her to live, as well as housing rights, employment and professional training. The payments will be awarded to families at different stages in the children's lives, apparently to prevent the families from trying to fool the system. Some of those families will be exempt from paying for their girls' schooling.
According to several reports, published in the "Wall Street Journal" and other newspapers in mid-August, the government will take strict measures against doctors and hospitals that perform ultrasound tests and other tests, which make it possible to know the sex of the fetus. The government will also increase efforts to stop the phenomenon of female infants being trapped or abandoned in the wild. Finally, the Chinese government is also planning a propaganda campaign, the aim of which is to teach the country's citizens to treat girls with equality and respect.
The officials who announced this experimental program see the Chinese tendency to favor boys over girls as a major reason for the extreme skew in the ratio of boys to girls. However, Zhang Weiqing, a member of the National Family Planning Committee, said that there is no connection between the "one child" policy and the unbalanced relationship.
It seems that China learned the hard way what the "one child" policy can do. Since the policy was first dictated in the late 70s, Chinese men in their 20s now have to face a harsh reality, where six bachelors compete for five potential brides. Across the country there are many reports of kidnapping cases of women, as many frustrated men resort to any means to get a partner. Now, as a new generation of Chinese begins to man the centers of power, the incentive to correct the gender imbalance is growing.
