Gender bias in China and India: an evaluation of missing girls

The discrimination between sexes, from which no country is immune, can occur in several ways. This paper aims to analyse a particular manifestation of such a phenomenon, which entails important socio-demographic implications. In some Asian countries (especially China and India) gender discrimination shows a direct impact on female survival, mainly during childhood, due to the lack of equity between sexes in the access to primary needs, like food and health care. Such a situation, together with the sex-selective abortions’ widespread practice, produces the missing women phenomenon, described for the first time in 1990 by Amartya Sen. The scholar claimed that the “terrible deficit of women”, caused by gender discrimination in substantial parts of developing world, reached an overall estimate of 100 million of missing women. Sen’s reflections heated an international debate between scholars from different fields. The analysis of the phenomenon raises manifold questions: ranging from the methodological ones, related to its quantification, to the cultural, social, political and economical ones dealing with causes and consequences of the women deficit. This study intends to investigate the main discrimination forms causing the shortage of women: those acting before birth, by sex selective abortions, and those after birth, by granting less cares to daughters in comparison to sons. We hence have estimated the deficit of women produced by each modality, referring to the situation of the two most affected countries (China and India). Understanding how discrimination’s forms act appears essential in order to plan effective contrasting policies. Such an issue represents a subject of discussion not only within the affected countries but also within the international community. Warranting the same chances of survival for men and women all over the world is a goal of primary importance, not only to ensure the fundamental human rights’ respect, but also to avoid the dangerous social imbalances that a deficit of women can produce.