September 16, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 22, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: Asians are facing a peculiar phenomenon of bride deficit, as the UNFPA’s state of the world population report 2006 has revealed the region is facing a shortage of 100 million women.

The report, A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration, was launched globally on Thursday.

A strong preference for sons and exorbitant dowry demands are the leading reasons behind the quiet decimation of girls. In China and India only, estimated 40.1 and 39.1 million women and girls are “missing”, respectively, the report said.

Men are increasingly scouting outside their own borders to fill the gap. In India, villagers approach brokers to procure Bangladeshi and Nepalese women and girls, who often face discrimination on account of being poor, ethnically different and paid for a justification for abusive behaviour by some husbands who may feel that they “own” their wives, the report observed.

For some women and their families, these arrangements offer an escape from poverty. But for others, it is a one-way ticket to hardship, social exclusion and forced labour, it said.

The report says in parts of Asia, various factors are fuelling the demand for potential brides.

In many East and South East Asian countries, the increase in women entering the workforce coupled with a trend towards delaying or forgoing marriage and childbearing altogether is leading to a demand for more “traditional” brides in order to maintain the household, it said.

Rural to urban migration of women is another factor accounting for the bride deficit. And researchers are also attributing the shortage to as many as 100 million “missing” women and girls eliminated through prenatal sex selection and infanticide.

A 2005 study of 213 Vietnamese migrant women who had once lived in China found that close to 30 per cent had been sold as brides. Many reported that they had entered into the arrangement because of poverty; 91 per cent reported insufficient income; 69 per cent cited unemployment; and 80 per cent said it was to provide for their elderly parents.

Though many planned to send remittances back home, most found themselves confined to the household instead. Researchers also uncovered evidence of physical abuse and reproductive rights violations, the report added.