Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India: Macro Demographics versus Local Dynamics PDF
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Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development 8 Sharada Srinivasan Shuzhuo Li Editors Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India Macro Demographics versus Local Dynamics Demographic Transformation and Socio- Economic Development Volume 8 Editors-in-chief: Yves Charbit and Dharmalingam Arunachalam This dynamic series builds on the population and development paradigms of recent decades and provides an authoritative platform for the analysis of empirical results that map new territory in this highly active field. Its constituent volumes are set in the context of unprecedented demographic changes in both the developed—and developing—world, changes that include startling urbanization and rapidly aging populations. Offering unprecedented detail on leading-edge methodologies, as well as the theory underpinning them, the collection will benefit the wider scholarly community with a full reckoning of emerging topics and the creative interplay between them. The series focuses on key contemporary issues that evince a sea-c hange in the nexus of demographics and economics, eschewing standard ‘populationist’ theories centered on numerical growth in favor of more complex assessments that factor in additional data, for example on epidemiology or the shifting nature of the labor force. It aims to explore the obstacles to economic development that originate in high-growth populations and the disjunction of population change and food security. Where other studies have defined the ‘economy’ more narrowly, this series recognizes the potency of social and cultural influences in shaping development and acknowledges demographic change as a cause, as well as an effect, of broader shifts in society. It is also intended as a forum for methodological and conceptual innovation in analyzing the links between population and development, from finely tuned anthropological studies to global, systemic phenomena such as the ‘demographic dividend’. Reflecting the boundary-b lurring rapidity of developing nations’ socio-economic rise, the editors are actively seeking studies relating to this sector, and also to Russia and the former Soviet states. At the same time as addressing their underrepresentation in the literature, the series also recognizes the critical significance of globalization, and will feature material on the developed world and on global migration. It provides everyone from geographers to economists and policy makers with a state-of-the-art appraisal of our understanding of demographics and development. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8813 Sharada Srinivasan • Shuzhuo Li Editors Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India Macro Demographics versus Local Dynamics Editors Sharada Srinivasan Shuzhuo Li University of Guelph Institute for Population and Dev’t Studi Guelph, Ontario, Canada Xi’an Jiaotong University Xi’an, Shaanxi, China Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development ISBN 978-3-319-63274-2 ISBN 978-3-319-63275-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63275-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017951126 © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface A three-year research project Demographic Shifts and Gender in Asia: ‘Scarce Women’ and ‘Surplus Men’ (2011–2014), led by Daniele Belanger of the University of Laval and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, examined the consequences of sex ratio imbalance in China, India and Vietnam. This research in turn inspired us to bring together other scholars who were trying to understand how the impacts of a male surplus and female scarcity unfold at the micro-level, in the form of an edited book. The editors of this book coordi- nated the India and China research, respectively. Following a call for papers in 2014, 12 papers were invited. In preparation of the manuscript, a 3-day workshop with the contributors was held in the Netherlands in May 2015. The workshop was hosted by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) and funded by the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). At the workshop, authors did not present their papers since all contributors read all the papers prior to the workshop. Rather each paper was discussed by an assigned dis- cussant and then by the entire group. The workshop generated rich discussion on the issues around the scarce women-surplus men phenomena, the challenges of gather- ing high-quality data as well as relevant feedback for each author. There is much scope and research needed to examine the impacts of scarce women and surplus men. This collection offers insights on one such aspect, namely, bride shortage and the prospects and strategies of single men in daughter deficit contexts in China and India. We acknowledge the support from Daniele Belanger in initiating the edited col- lection. Thanks go to Yves Charbit and Dharmalingam Arunachalam, the editors of the Springer series in demographic change and socio-economic development, who provided encouraging, critical and practical feedback on various chapters. Thanks v vi Preface are also due to the anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Finally we thank Alicia Filipowich for logistical assistance with the workshop, and Samantha Postulart and Andrew Vowles for the assistance in copy-editing. Guelph, ON, Canada Sharada Srinivasan Xi’an, China Shuzhou Li Contents 1 Unifying Perspectives on Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India .................................................................................... 1 Sharada Srinivasan and Shuzhuo Li 2 Being ‘Bare Branches’: Demographic Imbalance, Marriage Exclusion and Masculinity in North India ............................ 25 Paro Mishra 3 Household Division, Intra-generational Inequality and Marriage Prospects of Single Men in Multi-son Families in Rural China ..................................................... 47 Y. Li, W.D. Li, and S.Z. Li 4 ‘Who Said I Was a Forced Bachelor?’ Single Men’s Voices and Strategies in Rural China ................................................................. 67 Kun Zhang and Danièle Bélanger 5 “Now It Is Difficult to Get Married”: Contextualising Cross-Regional Marriage and Bachelorhood in a North Indian Village .......................................................................... 85 Shruti Chaudhry 6 The Sex Ratio Question and the Unfolding of a Moral Panic? Notions of Power, Choice and Self in Mate Selection Among Women and Men in Higher Education in China .................................... 105 Lisa Eklund 7 The Impact of Bride Shortage in South India: Vellala Gounders in Western Tamil Nadu ............................................................................. 127 Judith Heyer vii viii Contents 8 Sex Ratio Imbalances in Asia: An Ongoing Conversation Between Anthropologists and Demographers ........................................ 145 C.Z. Guilmoto Index ................................................................................................................. 163 Chapter 1 Unifying Perspectives on Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India Sharada Srinivasan and Shuzhuo Li 1.1 Introduction Nearly a quarter of a century after Amartya Sen’s (1990) essay on the missing women of Asia, China and India’s demographic imbalance between men and women creates growing concerns about ‘scarce women’ and ‘surplus men’ and how the reconfiguration of local and national population structures will affect the future of societies in Asia and beyond. At the heart of the unfolding crisis is the crucial role of patrilineal and patrilocal heteronormative marriage in facilitating procreation, lineage continuity, old age care, access to women’s sexual and domestic labour. The impetus for this edited book lies in the current inadequate understanding of dynam- ics at work in localities where demographic pyramids are slimmer on the female side, compared to the male side. Some existing accounts—particularly those from security studies—are fraught with unsupported hypotheses, unclear assumptions and sensationalistic accounts. There is an urgent need to examine, at the ground level, processes that are unfolding in communities. This edited book contributes to the advancement of knowledge by first docu- menting how individuals and families experience, adapt and adjust to recent demo- graphic shifts. Second, the chapters discuss how demographic change interacts with other concurrent processes of change with respect to economic development and globalization, gender, sexuality, generation, class, caste, marriage, families, notion of self, migration and work. The book includes case studies in selected communities of China and India conducted by experienced and emerging scholars from diverse S. Srinivasan (*) University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] S. Li Institute for Population and Dev’t Studi, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 1 S. Srinivasan, S. Li (eds.), Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India, Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development 8, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63275-9_1
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