Toothless laws fail to stem disproportionate birth of boys
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Lin Likang is preparing for a tough battle to rebalance the gender ratio of newborns in an area with one of the worst distorted ratios in China.
"Almost three decades after the government began preaching the idea that girls are equal to boys, some parents still prefer sons, so they turn to illegal gender tests to detect and kill female fetuses," says Lin.
As deputy head of the Human Resources and Family-planning Department of Jiaojiang District of Taizhou city, Zhejiang Province, he is stuck in a city, which -- with Wenzhou and Jinhua cities -- has a growing imbalance in the sex ratio at birth.
On average, China's male-to-female ratio among newborns ranges from 103:100 to 107:100, but the figure in Taizhou has hovered around 112:100 since 2006. Last year, it rose to 118:100.
"The bigger the gap between male and female newborns, the worse the selective abortions of female fetuses," said Lin.
To remedy the situation, Lin says, China must enact more powerful laws to severely punish those engaged in underground gender-testing -- banned except for medical purposes under China's Population and Family Planning Law on Maternal and Infant Health -- and subsequent abortions.
Since China adopted policies that basically restrict each family to only one child in late 1970s so as to prevent explosive population growth, most Chinese, except ethnic minorities or those otherwise qualified to have a second child, have only one chance to have a son.
This has spawned an underground gender test and abortion industry, which further unbalances China's already distorted gender ratio.
