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Over the past generation, dramatic and biologically unnatural imbalances between the number of baby boys and baby girls have emerged in many Asian societies. The problem of "missing girls"--literally tens of millions of them--is painfully evident in China and India today, but it also characterizes other Asian populations beyond these
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two demographic giants.
What are the current dimensions of Asia's "missing girl" problem? What factors explain the rise of this troubling new phenomenon? What are the implications of Asia's girl shortage--and its impending scarcity of young women? And what can concerned actors--in the international community, local governments, and civil society--do about it? Monica Das Gupta of the World Bank's Development Research Group and Ambassador Mark Lagon and Laura Lederer, both of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State, will discuss these important issues. AEI's Nicholas Eberstadt will moderate.
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1:45 p.m.
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Registration
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2:00
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Panelists:
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Monica Das Gupta, World Bank
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Ambassador Mark Lagon, U.S. Department of State
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Laura Lederer, U.S. Department of State
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Moderator:
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Nicholas Eberstadt, AEI
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4:00
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Adjournment
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Traditional Preferences, Modern Technology Spell Death for Asia's Baby Girls
WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 19, 2008--Where are Asia's baby girls? Countries such as India and China have biologically unnatural gender imbalances, a subject taken up by panelists at an AEI conference on September 17. Moderated by AEI's Nicholas Eberstadt, the event featured Ambassador Mark Lagon and Laura Lederer, both of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State, and the World Bank Development Research Group's Monica Das Gupta.
Lederer outlined the severity of this problem, noting that the underrepresentation of women is not a new phenomenon in Asia. But with the development of ultrasound technology in the late 1970s and early 1980s, gender disparities have increased dramatically. As Lederer noted, some doctors believe that 2 million girls are aborted each year "simply because they are female." In China, the gender gap amounts to 50 million people. The "son preference" is motivated by traditional values, such as the sentiment that sons are breadwinners while daughters are a financial burden and the importance of male lineages for property inheritance.
The increasing shortage of women now has social consequences, including human trafficking. Lagon noted: "These gender imbalances are exacerbating the demand for trafficking victims, particularly for women and girls as brides and for commercial sex," he said. Out of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across international borders annually, 80 percent of the victims are female. In "bachelor villages" in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, females have been bought or kidnapped from abroad to become brides in these villages. Lagon provided three recommendations for governments seeking to stop human trafficking:
- Prosecute traffickers
- Protect the victims
- Prevent trafficking by raising public awareness
Das Gupta reiterated the importance of public awareness in preventing gender imbalance. She noted that in addition to increased female education and urbanization, access to cable television and changes in social norms have helped to reverse the gender imbalances in South Korea, which once had male to female ratios similar to those in China and India today.
This horrific "modern-day slavery" provoked by the drastic gender imbalances in Asia, Lagon said, is the worst kind of human rights violation. There is no reason for millions of girls to go "missing" every year.
--APOORVA SHAH and STEPHEN GUNTHER
For video, audio, and more information about this event, visit www.aei.org/event1796/.
For media inquiries, contact Véronique Rodman at vrodman@aei.org or 202.862.4870.
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