Sir, The recent screening of the programme Return to the Dying Rooms on Channel Four has provoked a groundswell of public anger and upset with the Chinese authorities. The tragedy of the "dying rooms" should be seen in the appropriate context population control programmes and the problems of son preference and violence against women and girl children are global problems which require courageous international debate and action.
While Oxfam does not work in China, we have witnessed human rights abuses against women and girl children in many of the countries where we do operate. In India and in Bangladesh, for example, men outnumber women by six per cent, the same proportions as in China. The causes of the disparity include female infanticide, widow burning and dowry deaths, violence against women, unsafe abortions (and deliberate aborting of female foetuses in some cases) and pregnancy and childbirth complications. The Indian Government this month banned the common practice of using ultra sound and amniocentesis to determine the sex of a child (prenatal sex selection) in an attempt to limit the deliberate abortions of girls" (Guardian, January 11th).
However, the main cause of the absence of females in some countries is simple long term neglect of women it is common, for example, for women and girl children to eat less than men and boys. In Bangladesh, the malnutrition rate for girls is three times higher than that for boys.
Within the population debate", it is commonly accepted that developing countries including China and India "simply have to do something" about population growth. However state policies which impose population limits reinforce son preference and traditional attitudes towards women consequently the tragic, and fatal, abuse of the rights of the girl child. Furthermore, population control programmes which are characterised by lack of information and personal choice, and by coercion and violence in extreme cases are often targeted specifically at poor communities.
The discussion opened by The Dying Rooms documentaries must broaden and include this and other key issues in this debate resource distribution and consumption problems, the transfer of dangerous reproductive technologies from North to South and, clearly, women's empowerment and status in society. Yours, etc. Policy adviser, Oxfam in Ireland, 19 Clanwilliam Terrace, Dublin 2.