Unmarried mothers in Hubei province will be able to apply for birth certificates for their children from next year. Experts say the gesture is a step towards acknowledging the legal status of children born out of wedlock, ECNS reports.
The new regulation was issued jointly by the Hubei provincial health and family planning commission and public security department. The document – "A Management Approach to the Medical Proof of Birth of Hubei Province" – stipulates that all babies born within the province will be given a standard birth certificate and local authorities shall not require marriage certificates or reproduction certificates as a prerequisite.
The birth certificate is medical proof of the baby's birth status and parental relationship. It is needed to obtain Chinese citizenship as well as the household registration permit, or hukou. The lack of a hukou creates problems for the child's education and medical treatment later in life.
"The requirements for obtaining a birth certificate differ from region to region, but usually it includes a birth approval certificate from the local family planning bureau. Some places even require a marriage license," Liang Zhongtang, a former expert with the National Population and Family Planning Commission and research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
Liang said the new policy is an improvement. "It doesn't matter whether you are married or unmarried, as long as there's a birth, the child will be a legal one, that's following the natural order," he said.
Yuan Xin, a professor with the Institute of Population and Development at Nankai University also told the Global Times: "The policy is humane as it shows respect to people's rights of birth and children's rights of survival,
"But a birth certificate does not mean unmarried parents will be exempt from punishment if their giving birth violates China's family planning policy," Yuan said.
Some people question the legitimacy of this policy, saying it might encourage giving birth before marriage and extramarital affairs, which go against the traditional values of society. There has long been discrimination toward unmarried parents in China.
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