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...and, where there are 135 males for every 100 females. Some experts claim that the predominance of men will lead to increased violence and social instability. China and India, among the worst-affected countries in the world, are the most vulnerable, they argue. Another consequence of such a preference is that many men cannot find wives. It is plainly visible in Hainan , which two years ago began experiencing a shortage of women. Boys at schools often outnumber girls by three to one, while men are unable to find eligible women for marriage. Gender researcher Sanjay Kumar Mohanty, of the International Institute for Population Sciences at Deemed University in Mumbai, believed that the shortage of women of marriageable age was only the tip of the social imbalance that had emerged. “Over time, it will also probably lead to polygamy and homosexuality and increased incidence of rape and prostitution,” he said.¹ Old attitudes could change with the knowledge that sons do not have to provide for families. We should make the sorts of policy changes that we are hoping to see in China, such as introducing old-age assurance for parents so they are not so dependent on sons to take care of them. Beijing-based researcher Leyongping was n...