Lost and found: the "missing girls" in rural China
In: Oxford scholarship online
In: Political Science
Between 1979 and 2010 local leaders and rural families across China concealed the existence of millions of girls from government officials and the national census. The single child policy (1979-2015) was introduced in 1979, and the central government's goal was to reduce population growth through strict birth control. Yet, at the same time, many rural parents had strong incentives not to comply with the birth control policy because under economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, larger families meant increased labour and income. This book examines the effects of the policy and the status of China's 'missing' girls.