NGO decries STD testing for female civil servants

(Ecns.cn)—The mandatory practice of testing female civil servant candidates for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has drawn criticism from a local NGO, the Beijing Times reported on Tuesday.

According to the current rules, female candidates for civil servant positions must take gynecological examinations, mainly to exclude the possibility of STDs, even though such diseases would not be transmitted through normal contact at work.

This is indirect discrimination and should be changed or called off, argued the Yirenping Center, a Beijing-based NGO, in a letter to human resource and social security, health and national public service authorities.

Such check-ups violate the privacy of females and injure their self-esteem, Wu Zhengrong, who works for the NGO, was quoted.

"I felt quite uncomfortable," a graduate student from the China Youth University for Political Science told media, referring to her experience of being asked to write down the details of her menstrual cycle. "I don't understand how any of this is related to my working capacity," she asked.

Another anonymous woman from Guangdong Province also expressed a feeling of being "violated."

Women and men are biologically different, therefore females are required to take more physical exams – this is natural and has nothing to do with privacy, Wu Mingjiang, vice chairman of the Chinese Medical Association, said in response