85% Chinese concerned by gender imbalance - survey

CHINA / National

85% Chinese concerned by gender imbalance - survey

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-18 14:45

BEIJING -- Eighty-five percent of Chinese people are perturbed by the
mounting gender imbalance in the country, according to a poll by the
China Youth Daily and QTick.com.

Out of 2,603 respondents from 29 provinces and municipalities, as much as
88 percent of people from rural areas said they were worried about the
extent to which males outnumbered females.

China's male population outnumbers that of females by 37 million, the
most uneven in the world, of which males aged between zero and 15 are 18
million more than females, the China Youth Daily quoted government
statistics as saying.

Statistics from the Information Office of the State Council show the sex
ratio for newborns is 119 boys to 100 girls and the figure is more
alarming in provinces such as Jiangxi, Guangdong, Anhui and Henan, where
it stands at 130 to 88.

Tian Jianguo, a 68-year-old respondent, said, "How can my grandson find a
wife in the future?"

Officials from the central government are concerned about the social
problems brought by the gender imbalance, which reduces millions of males
to bachelors each year around the country, the China Youth Daily reported.

Crimes such as abduction of women and human-trafficking are haunting the
areas with the greatest gender imbalance, an official from the State
Family Planning Commission said recently.

Sex-selection abortions aided by ultrasonic scanning was blamed by the
respondents as the main cause for China's gender imbalance.

Over 15 percent of respondents said many of their relatives and friends
had used ultrasonic scanning to select the sex of their babies.

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