Preventing More 'Missing Girls' : A Review of Policies to Tackle Son Preference
In parts of Asia, South Caucasus, and the Balkans, son preference is strong enough to trigger significant levels of sex selection, result in the excess mortality of girls, and skew child sex ratios in favor of boys. Every year, 1.8 million girls un...
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/648421541077646986/Preventing-More-Missing-Girls-A-Review-of-Policies-to-Tackle-Son-Preference http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30656 |
| Summary: | In parts of Asia, South Caucasus, and
the Balkans, son preference is strong enough to trigger
significant levels of sex selection, result in the excess
mortality of girls, and skew child sex ratios in favor of
boys. Every year, 1.8 million girls under the age of five go
“missing” because of the widespread use of sex selective
practices in these regions. The pervasive use of such
practices is reflective of the striking inequities girls
face today, and it also has negative implications for
efforts to improve women's status in the long term.
Consequently, governments of countries in these regions have
employed direct measures, such as banning the use of
prenatal sex selection technology and providing financial
incentives to families that have girls. This paper takes
stock of the direct measures used across countries grappling
with skewed child sex ratios and compares the efficacy of
direct measures with measures that indirectly raise the
value of daughters. The stocktaking suggests that there is
no conclusive evidence that direct approaches reduce the
higher mortality risk for girls. Bans on the use of sex
selection technology may inadvertently worsen the status of
the very individuals they intend to protect, and financial
incentives to families with girls offer short-term benefits
at most. Alternatively, indirect measures, such as legal
reform to promote gender equity and advocacy efforts, offer
more promise by bringing about permanent shifts in the
relative value of daughters. The stocktaking also
underscores the paucity of causal studies in this literature. |
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