Sex Ratio

Gender imbalance is a growing concern of both Vietnamese government and a hot topic for media debates. According to Vietnam General Office for Population and Family Planning, each year the sex ratio at birth – defined by the number of newborn baby boys over 100 baby girls - increases by 1%.

Most countries in the world have their sex ratio stabilize at the level between 104 and 107. What is notable about Vietnam is that this number grew about 1% every decade until the turn to 21st century. What is even more alarming is that, the sex ratio at birth of 6 out of 58 provinces in Vietnam is between 120 and 128%. At this phenomenon, Vietnam has been joining many other Asian nations such as China, South Korea and India in what Amartya Sen – a world famous economist – called “the missing women of Asia”.
Photo: baodaidoanket.vn

The General Office for Population and Family Planning has pinpointed many causes for the imbalance between newborn boys and girls in Vietnam. They include – the patriarchal ideology that has existed for thousands of years in Vietnam; popularity of the practice “gendercide” – parents’ intentional effort to have baby boys. The looming gender crisis is believed to be a serious demographic problem, as bachelors will have a harder time to find wives. In past cases, it has led to domestic and cross-border human trafficking, where women are brought from outside the country to make up for the shortage. Vietnam is vesting much of its effort in campaigning against the preference for male over female and there are still much more under way to do to correct this problem.