A senior Chinese official said that the existence of unbalanced
sex ratio at birth in China has nothing to do with the country's
family planning policy.
"The normal sex ratio at birth should be in the range of 100:103
(female:male) and 100:107. But it is now 100:119.86 in China," Gu
Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC),
said at a news conference held by the Information Office of the
State Council on Wednesday.?
Gu, who is also chairwoman of the All-China Women's
Federation, attributed the imbalance to three major factors:
deep-rooted conventional ideas that males are superior to females,
the lack of a sound social security system in the rural areas, and
the availability of modern technology to identify the sex of a
fetus.
"To my knowledge, the existence of an unbalanced ratio at birth
is not unique to China, but has also been reported in some other
countries that do not have a family planning policy," Gu said.
"Therefore, I should say the phenomenon has nothing to do with
our family planning policy."
Gu said the imbalance reflects the inequality of men and women
and it constitutes an infringement on the female's right to exist
and develop.
According to Gu, the Chinese government has taken a series of
measures to address the imbalance, including fostering awareness
about gender equality, establishing and improving the social
security system, stepping up crackdowns on illegal identification
of fetus' sex, and providing more social care for girls.
(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2005)
