ABSTRACT
For analytic purposes it is convenient to divide the diverse societies of Asia into the four sub-regions of East, South, Southeast and West Asia, each of which constitutes 43, 39, 14 and 4% respectively of Asia’s 1990 population. Their growth rates between 1985 and 1990 ranged from 1.3% in East Asia to 2.8% in West Asia.1 Within East Asia, China comprises 85% of the region’s population, in South Asia, India (72%), Bangladesh (10%) and Pakistan (10%) together make up 92% of the total, while in Southeast Asia, Indonesia comprises 42% of the population.2 These six countries, all among the world’s ten most populous countries, together totalled 82% of Asia’s population in 1990, which means that demographic processes in any of these countries greatly influence aggregates and Asia-wide trends. This study is confined to East and South Asia, where there has been a coincidence of socio-economic and demographic trends including rising economic development, reduced fertility, new birth control technologies and continuing or exacerbated son preference, which have all led to persistent or increased daughter discrimination. Although these correlations are common to both East and South Asia, patterns of discrimination take different forms. In East Asia it has been the dramatic increase in abnormal sex ratios at birth or interventions before or at birth which has drawn attention to discrimination against daughters plus, but to a lesser extent, rising trends in female infant and child mortality. In contrast, in South Asia it was excessive female infant and child mortality which first drew attention to daughter discrimination although, in recent years, there has been an increased concern with sex ratios at birth as a result of sex selective abortion. Combined, these patterns have led to the phenomenon of ‘missing’ girls in both East and South Asia and, most especially, in the two most populous countries of China and India.
