“Gender issues at the early stage of life in South and East Asia”

This seminar, organised by the French Institute in Pondicherry (IFP), the French Center for Population and Development (CEPED), UNFPA in India and the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), located in Paris, focus on female discrimination in the young ages. The 2001 Indian Census revealed a very high masculinity of the population 0 to 6. We know that it a consequence of the practices of foeticide and infanticide. How to explain this strongest female discrimination ? What kind of conclusions we can draw from international comparisons ?

The seminar aims a better understanding of this phenomenon of discrimination against young female in India and in other countries where it is attested, as China, South Korea or Taiwan. Through the comparison of national experiences, it will be possible to better identify the role played, in the new trends, respectively by fertility decline, traditional son preference, evolution of dowry and availability amniocentesis and ultrasonography. This form of discrimination has to be considered too, in relation with economic growth, development and change in the values (a high level of income may be associated with a strong discrimination against young girls ; the development could, for instance, reduce the son preference, but this is not necessarily the case).

As the discrimination against young females may vary from one place to another one, inside a country -it is particularly the case in India-, there is a real interest to conduct a spatial exploration of this phenomenon. What are, for example in India, the factors affecting sex-selective abortion at the level of the major states ? Are urban and rural areas different regarding this phenomenon ? What are the differences between India and China ?

Gender differences of health and of mortality as gender differences of education at the early stage of life will be also considered. Is this type of discrimination decreasing, as mortality is declining and education improving ?

The immediate objective of this seminar is to precise the context of the discrimination against young girls. A mid-term objective is to promote comparative researches on discrimination against women, not only at the early stages of life, but through the whole life cycle.