By Helen Clark
HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug 21 (IPS) – Vietnam is something of a regional leader when it comes to gender equality. There are laws against domestic violence and discrimination, and very high female literacy.
Yet its sex ratio is skewed. For every 100 girls born, there are 112 boys. People prefer sons.
“If you have sons and they have children, they will carry on the family name,” says Ngo Thi Thanh Nhan, 32. “People want boys so when they are pregnant with girls – abortion. This thinking must change,” she adds, cradling her second daughter who is less than a month old.
In keeping with Vietnamese tradition, mother and child will remain confined to their home in District 10, Ho Chi Minh city, for the next two months.
Nhan watches as female relatives coo over her daughter, Dang Nghi. “I prefer girls but my husband likes boys. Boys and girls are the same, I think,” she says. Will she have a third child? No, she has been sterilised.
The Population Ordinance, restricting families to two children, was reinstated in November 2008, after being rescinded in 2003. It was originally brought in during the mid-1980s thanks to government fears of a population boom and corresponding strains on resources.
Vietnam’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) has been rising steadily for the past few years, from the “average” 105 boys to 100 girls in 1999 to 110:100 in 2006. This year it topped at an average of 112:100.
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