Singaporean Kids with Dads 'Unknown'

In recent year, Singaporeans are seeing more single mothers who leave out the father's name in the birth certificates of the baby. In the Straits Times report on September 1, 2008 the figures that increased were as follows:
2005 - 481 cases
2006 - 495 cases
2007 - 561 cases

In the ICA records, of these 1,537 births, only 91 or about 6% of them had their father's name inserted in the birth certificates.

Single mothers who were interviewed preferred to leave the names out as they wanted to protect their child from custody claim that may come years later after years of neglect. Mothers are naturally protective of their baby especially if their child grows up to be a young daughter. Also by leaving out the father's name, the mothers get a clean break from these man and also has less complications to look for the presence of the father during school registration.

The only trouble that bothered with these single mothers was that they are being left out in baby bonuses and also application to apply for the government HDB flat are being turned down. In order to apply for a new HDB flat, a family nucleus is the qualifying factor. Without a father, there is recognition of family nucleus.