Infanticide in China

Nucha's Note:  I wrote this story long time ago. It was what happened in the past until late 90's and no longer there now (or very few). I decided to keep the article so we know what used to happened and learn from it -- specially law makers -- make sure you foresee culture-related problems before implementation.

(This article was first published in Small World Ezine on 29 April 2002)

 

The story we are about to discuss is not a pleasant one.
I have been thinking since the beginning of our publication
if we should talk about it. This weekend I came to the 
decision that we should publish it. If we realize what is 
going on, we probably can help one way or another. 

 In some cultures, men are considered prime creatures, and 
families will be disappointed if their newborns are girls. 

In China, you'll be considered a bad descendant to your 
ancestors if you do not have a boy to carry the family name.
It's also a culture that when a girl is married, she'd move 
to the groom's house. That makes parents prefer boys because
the boys are supposed to take care of them when they grow 
old.
 
For hundreds of years, if poverty attacked because of floods, 
droughts, famines, locust invasions, or anything... the 
peasants in these areas, who were dependent on the land and 
the crops, did the only thing they could think of to survive 
under these conditions--they killed their female babies.
 
Since 1979, when the "One-Child Policy" was introduced by 
the Chinese government to control spiralling population 
growth (Couples are penalized by wage-cuts and reduced 
access to social services when children are born "outside 
the plan."), infanticide rates has rised dramatically. If 
they'd be allowed only one child, it had to be a boy.

If the girls were not killed, they'd be abandoned. Some 
were made crippled by their parents because, according to 
the regulations, if the first baby was disabled, the 
parents were allowed to have another baby.

This is sad that the government's planning has resulted in 
a slaughter of the innocents. 

Even nowadays, many of the girls were killed while still in 
the womb -- the victims of ultrasound technology that 
revealed the baby’s gender. Others, were starved to death 
after birth or not treated when they became ill. 

Since 1980s World Health Organization (WHO) is looking 
seriously into this problem. And the Chinese government has
allowed couples to have a second child if the first born is 
a girl. 

 

Here're the facts from a web site called the Dying Room 
(the site is no longer on line).

- Every year there are around 30 million babies born in China. 
- Many thousands, possibly even up to a million, of these new 
borns are abandoned when they turn out to be girls. 
- Many of those abandoned die of exposure. Others are picked 
up by gangs and used for begging. The lucky ones go to the 
State run Orphanages. 
- Under-funded, understaffed, the levels of care in these 
orphanages range from barely adequate to downright inhuman. 
- In some Orphanages, death rates among the babies can be as 
high as 1 in 5. 

There are more to read if you are interested in the issue:
Gendercide Study (also have cases in India)


This is an old issue, but the problem is still there. 
However, I would also stress that not ALL Chinese are doing 
this. My Chinese friend said it happens in only some parts
of the country where the people are very poor. Now that the
One-Child Policy is "relaxed", we just hope poverty does not
continue. How about this kind of cultures/beliefs? Should it 
be discontinued too? How?

More:

As a result of the 1979's "One-Child-Policy" and the killing 
of baby girls, Chinese population at the age of 20s consists 
of more men than women. It is said that to get a good girl
to marry nowadays, a man has to pay a good deal to the girl's 
family. Now parents probably like to have girls already?