Prenatal sex selection

Although national data shows that fertility level has been continuing decline in Vietnam, the official report of Vietnamese General Office of Population and Family Planning found that the evidences for increasing baby born in the year 2012 has no doubt roused reproductive proclivities. The lunar calendar is regularly used in many Asian Countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan and Korea. Traditionally, Vietnamese believe in the zodiac promotes the superstition that the timing of one's birth determines one's fate. 2012 is a special Dragon year of in the 60-year cycle of Vietnamese lunar calendar, regarding luckiest time to have a child. The dragon is the symbol of royalty, and people expect that a child born in this year will grow up to be extremely lucky, talented, and be a powerful leader. Cultural belief affects significantly demographic outcomes, and suggests that cultural reform or popular education by government should play an important role for population policymakers. And the lunar calendar should be regard as a proximately determinant on fertility in Vietnam.

Several Asian countries experience an unbalanced sex ratio at birth. If the trend has existed in China and India for over 20 years, it is a very recent phenomenon in Vietnam – it was established in 2008 -, but also extremely rapid. The national sex ratio at birth in 2011 was 112 boys for 100 girls, and exceeded 115 in 18 provinces out of 63. The rising proportion of male births is linked to prenatal sex selection.
This work is based on the comparison of two qualitative surveys, implemented in Hai Duong and Ninh Thuân provinces, in order to understand more about the root cause for son preference, and the different kinds of “pressure” within the family and the community, which lead some women to have sex-selective abortions. If the kinship system in Hai Duong province appears to be strongly patriarchal, hence the necessity to produce a male heir who will perform the ancestor’s worship and carry on the family name (SRB was 120.2 in 2009), we postulate that the situation in Ninh Thuân province is somewhat different (SRB was 110.8 in 2009). Indeed, Ninh Thuân has one of the largest concentrations of Cham people in the country, an ethnic group with a bilateral kinship system - therefore, the need for sons is less prominent, as married daughters still belong to their family clan.

Census of India 2011 registers decline in child sex ratio to 914 compared to 927 in 2001 which is a cause for concern for the country. This paper is a systematic review of decline in child sex ratio in India within the period of last 16 years i.e. from 1995 to 2011 as it was found that post 1990’s the decline in the ratio was more pronounced .The review attempts to analyse the literature available so as to know which were the areas covered while studying the subject and what needs to be done to understand the reasons behind the declining ratio. The study finds that most of the studies were all India level studies based on secondary data despite the fact that this problem was more pronounced in certain regions. Special focus on child sex ratio was missing in most of the studies relating to sex ratio. It was also found that only a few studies based on primary data at village or district level have been conducted which leaves a research gap to be filled.It appears that there is a need to have more regional level expositions of this phenomenon. The regional variation in child sex ratio can be better captured through district level primary research as it has been found that in certain regions the ratio is more skewed.

Strong son preference which has been a common demographic phenomenon in most of the developing countries could imbalance sex composition of population by altering sex ratio at birth. This has been the center of focus in Nepal after legalization of abortion in 2002. Anecdotal information points to the existence of pre-natal sex selection. Assessment of sex ratio at birth in 1991 and 2001 censuses showed more male than female babies born in many districts in Southern plains. Logistic Regression analysis of NDHS 2006 data on births of order 2 and higher results show that socioeconomic factors have no statistically significant effects. Interaction effects of birth order and number of living sons have emerged as most powerful predictors. Findings signify the tendency towards pre-natal sex selection and sex selective abortion. Such behaviour of demographic masculinization would have far reaching demographic consequence including the problem of marriage squeeze in Nepal in future.

Previous research on sex selective abortions has ignored the interactions between fertility, birth spacing and sex selection. This paper presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the determinants of sex selective abortions, fertility and birth spacing, using data from India's National Family and Health Surveys. For well educated Indian women the predicted number of abortions during childbearing is six percent higher after sex selection became illegal than before while their predicted fertility is eleven percent lower and around replacement level. Women with less education have substantially higher fertility and do not appear to use sex selection.

The findings of Census-2011 pertaining to drastic decline in Child Sex Ratio in Kashmir Valley (India) seem to be shocking given the Muslim majority character of the region, poor socio-economic status of women but lower gender discrimination in health and nutrition. Initially, the State Government closed ultrasound clinics, but due to the limited availability of reliable information on the extent of use of ultrasound for sex selection, most of the ultrasound clinics have been reopened. However, the decline in CSR has become a subject of debate both among academicians and civil society, but hardly any academic effort has been made to analyse the reality behind the decline in CSR in Kashmir. Using data from various sources regarding SRB and use of ultrasound and interaction with the census enumerators, the present paper aims to analyse whether the female feticide in Kashmir is a reality or the politicization of census has resulted in a drastic decline in CSR in Kashmir. The findings indicate that Kashmir has a normal SRB and women who use ultrasound do so for diagnostics purposes and not necessarily for sex determination of fetus. The underreporting of females in Census seems to have resulted in skewed child sex ratio in Kashmir.

Like other Western-industrialized countries, Australians who wish to have reproductive treatment for sex selection purposes must travel overseas to access them as there are legal barriers prohibiting the treatment in Australia. This raises the question about how Australian get their information on services and care to make informed decisions about this form of “reproductive tourism”. Our paper uses Grounded Theory Method to analyse data collected from Australian medical providers, overseas clinic websites, and Australian internet forums and discussion boards. We find that some Australian clinics advise their clients to go overseas for procedures which are illegal in Australia. In turn, overseas fertility specialists actively market their services for residents in countries such as Australia where the procedures are not allowed. The analysis of the forum and discussion boards provides considerable detail on the reasons and approach that people take. The main topics that arise on the internet forums are being able to speak freely and safely, anonymity, telling others, interactions with doctors, travel logistics, quality of service and cost.

Viet Nam has exhibited some signs of high sex ratio at birth (SRB) for the first time in 2000 and confirmed high SRB at national level of 110.6 in the 2009 census data. This study is to examine these high SRB and to identify possible social-economic determinants such parental age, birth order, sex of previous birth, parental education and household economic status. We did analyses, including bivariate analysis and logistic regression, on data of 5940 births from 2004 to 2011 that were obtained from CHILILAB, a community-based periodic Demographic-Epidemiologic Surveillance System for Hai Duong. As a result, the SRB in the 2007 – 2011 period was found high, 116.6 boys/100 girls (CI: 109.7 – 123.5). The SRB was at 117 boys/100 girls among the first born children. Among the second children, the SRB was 123 if the previous birth was a girl and 91.4 (CI: 81.8 – 102), which is significantly lower than the normal level, if the previous birth was a boy. Among second born, the chance of being a girl was significantly higher if the first child was a boy. Our findings suggest that in a country with a small family size policy, sex-selective abortion may be used both to have a son and to have a daughter according to the sex of the previous children

This study has chiefly focused on analyzing the child sex ratios in districts of Madhya Pradesh by estimating the number of district wise sex selective abortions in the period of 2004-2011 using indirect methods. Further, the contribution of sex differentials in child mortality and sex–selective abortions to sex imbalance in (0-6) age group is also obtained. The study has found that Prenatal Sex selection appears to have played major role in causing the deterioration observed in child sex ratios in state, Excess female mortality among children contributes only moderately to the deficit of girls. 282850 total missing girls are estimated in state during the period 2004-2011 out of which 184864 (65 %) are contributed by Sex selective Abortions and 97985(35 %) by excess female child mortality. In light of decreasing fertility, developed districts of state having high contribution of Sex Selective Abortions and less developed tribal districts having high contribution of excess female child mortality in total missing girls of state. Analysis found alarming districts where the share of Sex selective abortion is very high (above 90%) so that state should focus on those districts to protect worsening of situation and to save lives of future missing girls and their contribution to society instead become victim of an insensate acts.

The child sex ratio between the age group of 0–6 years has come down to 914 in the 2011 census from 927 in the 2001 census. The declining sex ratio trend is being recorded since 1991.The 2011 Census results on the sex composition of the Indian population have so far been discussed within the prevailing understanding of the reasons behind a declining child sex ratio. Developed states have recorded even steeper falls. Literacy and economic development have resulted in sharper skewness. The use of prenatal determination techniques followed by sex-selective abortion, female child neglect and female infanticide are the reasons behind low child sex ratio. The declined of female children will create an unbalanced sex structure of the population in country and country will face serious demographic and social consequences. What will be the prediction for the sex ratio in India for the next census 2021? This article questions aspects of this explanation and argues for a multi-causal approach to analyze the declining child sex ratio. Therefore, an attempt has been made to suggest measures to reverse the trend of declining sex ratio by the next census in India.