Sex Ratio Imbalances among Children at Micro-Level: China and India Compared

Christophe Z. Guilmoto, CICRED and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)
Sébastien Oliveau, Université de Provence / UMR ESPACE

Sex ratio imbalances found in Asia are primarily due to the increasing proportions of sons among children in China and India: the level of gender discrimination in several regions of East China and Northwest India may be extremely pronounced and tends to display a high level of spatial concentration. Comparable data from the last censuses (2000, 2001) can be mapped at the local level, using counties (xian) for China and sub-district units (tahsil, taluk, etc.) for India. In this paper, we first present comparable statistics and maps for both countries using these detailed administrative divisions (2300 and 5500 units) and then use both statistical and geostatistical analyses to contrast the geographical distribution of gender discrimination in China and India and their main social and economic correlates. The paper ends with a discussion of the theoretical and policy implications of these findings.