Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Thiện Nhân said Việt Nam will take synchronous and drastic measures to solve the current skewed sex ratio of births.
The Deputy PM chaired an international seminar on population problems held on October 5 by the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNPA).
He said controlling imbalanced sex ratio at birth needs the involvement of the whole political system, especially in 10 localities having the highest imbalanced ratios. Public awareness should be strengthened to remove the male preference attitude.
Deputy PM Nguyễn Thiện Nhân stresses that to deal with the sex-ratio imbalance, public awareness should be strengthened – Photo: VGP
Prenatal sex selection of boys in some Asian countries started to boom in the 1980s. After nearly 30 years, Việt Nam and some other Asian countries have realized serious impacts of the problem.
In most countries in the world, the sex ratio at birth is 104-106 boys over 100 girls. In Việt Nam, the rate is 115/100 in the Red River Delta, over 130/100 in Hưng Yên Province, 120/100 in Hải Dương Province, 115/100 in Hải Phòng City, 119/100 in Bắc Ninh Province…
The imbalanced sex ratio at birth is high among wealthy and educated families. It is 105/100 among 20% of the poorest population, and 112/100 among the richest.
If the ratio would not go back to normal, 2.3-4.3 million Vietnamese men weren’t able to find their wives. It would change family structure, and increase gender violence, women trafficking, prostitution…
At the seminar, delegates from India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania… shared points of view, initiatives and lessons learnt from the building of policies on controlling sex ratios at birth.
By Ngọc Vân
(Theo website Nguyễn Thiện Nhân)
