——–S. A. Hemanth———
Bengaluru, February, 19: It looks like that there is not much of a difference between some parts of rural India and rural China – the preference for boy child at the cost of girl child.
However, there is a small difference. In China, men end up paying what is called as “bride prices” whereas it is not so in India.
While the bride price, dowry paid by the groom to the bride’s family, has a long history in China, the Chinese government fears that the increasing number of single-men in comparison to single woman has exacerbated the trend.
According to a study, the gender imbalance is a legacy of decades of stringent family planning restrictions that have also led to China’s population shrinking in 2022.
This alarming phenomenon has received so much attention that it has now figured in the Communist Party’s first policy document for 2023. It was released on February 13. The document focused on rural issues.
The practice of dowries paid by the groom is also widely prevalent in urban China. The CCP – Chinese Communist Party – has now launched a campaign to curb the trend, with one provincial government in Southern Jiangxi holding a group wedding with ‘zero bride price’s last year to popularize the message.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Chinese men and women are choosing to avoid marriage altogether. In 2021, marriage registration in China fell to 7.64 million, the lowest figure on record since registration numbers began to be publicized starting in 1986.
EOM
