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CHINA - UNMARRIED MOTHERS TO GET CHILDREN'S BIRTH CERTIFICATES - Hubei Province

Editor:Sun Xi - December 2, 2013

Central China's Hubei Province recently issued a new policy stating that applications for birth certificates will no longer require a marriage certificate, meaning that unmarried mothers can now apply for birth certificates for their children.

Birth certificates are a required document when registering permanent residence in China.

The Hubei Provincial Birth Certificate Management Regulation was issued by the Health and Family Planning Commission and Public Security Department of Hubei Province.

The move has re-opened a debate about unmarried mothers and their children, especially after Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province, triggered wide public criticism for requiring women who give birth out of wedlock to pay heavy 'social compensation fees'.

"It will save me a lot of trouble," said Guo Chu, 23. She got pregnant around 19, when she was under the legal age for marriage in China. Her child still does not have a permanent residence registration.

"If he is successfully registered, it will be much more convenient for him to access education and medical services," she said.

One new mother named Chen said unmarried women have the right to choose whether or not to raise their child on their own and that out of wedlock births should be managed by the Marriage Law.

Yan Meifu, director of the Population and Education Development Research Center at Hubei University, said that giving every child a birth certificate is a form of respect for people's reproductive rights.

Shi Renbing, director of the Population and Policy Research Institute at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said that children born to unmarried mothers should not be discriminated against in any way.

Every year in China, the number of women giving birth out of wedlock grows by 10-13 percent, according to surveys carried out by the local press. The biggest problem they face is that they are not able to get a household registration for the child.

Without the household registration, the children will not be allowed into kindergarten and each time they fall ill, medical fees are higher than average.

(Source: news.xinhuanet.com/Translated and edited by womenofchina.cn)