ASIA - Female Infanticide: China and India still at the top of the list

Monday, 11 July 2016 women   civil society   family   violence   discrimination   human rights  

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New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) - China and India are among the countries at the top of the world rankings for female infanticide: says the latest report released by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), the first global study on the topic.
As stated in the Report, sent to Fides, the preference for male children is a phenomenon present all over the world and generates 1.5 million female fetuses aborted each year.
The Report notes that, with the exception of South Korea, no other country has been able to reverse the sex ratio at the birth of the child, despite the adoption of laws on the subject. In China, 115 boys are born every 110 females, while in India 112 males per 100 females, causing a demographic imbalance.
Several provisions in China - as the law on population and family planning of 2002 - prohibit the identification of the sex of the fetus and selective abortion, while in India there is a rule prohibiting prenatal diagnosis of the child's sex. "These governments measures were unsuccessful because of the easy access to ultrasound and weak law enforcement", the Report notes. "In India, an ultrasound examination and practice of any abortion can easily be carried out for about $ 150", said Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
The Report also highlights the phenomenon of "reproductive tourism" for the purpose of sex selection through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other technologies such as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
In a country such as Thailand, where the sex selection is not illegal, the Chinese, the Indians, and European citizens account for more than 70-80% of the tourists visiting the country only for practices related to the birth of a child .
"Female infanticide and the increasing surplus of men have disastrous consequences for humanity and are among the causes of women trafficking in Asia", says Chakma, describing female infanticide as "the worst form of gender discrimination" and urges the human rights Council of the United Nations to plan actions to eliminate the phenomenon. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 11/07/2016)


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