Unregistered babies to be included in state system

President Yoon Suk Yeol presides over a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)

Children born in hospitals but whose births were never registered by their parents will now be added to a state system that manages their welfare, even though they do not have a designated registration number, following the revision of an enforcement decree.

The government has decided to include the temporary numbers created and given to newborns when they get various vaccinations right after birth in its e-Child Happiness Support System database. Thus, even babies who have not been officially registered by their parents and lack a resident registration number will be in the system and the state will be able to check on their whereabouts.

"Through this revision, the government will help unregistered babies who are at-risk and are managed with temporary numbers grow up safely by checking on their well-being early," an official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

The bill, aimed at partially revising the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Use and Provision of Social Security Benefits and Search for Eligible Beneficiaries, was approved by the Cabinet on Monday.

The Korean government has operated the e-Child Happiness Support System database to manage at-risk children through 44 types of information such as not having fulfilled vaccinations, not having completed health checkups, long-term absences from school and not having paid National Health Insurance Service premiums. Once a child is classified as at-risk, local public officials visit the child's homes to check their well-being.

So far, only babies with official resident registration numbers, registered by their parents after birth, have had access to this state system. Unregistered babies born in local hospitals -- referred to as "ghost children" -- were previously not included in the system, creating a blind spot in their access to basic social welfare as well as in government oversight.

The revised enforcement decree will go into effect when promulgated after the president approves it, which is expected to take about a week, according to the Welfare Ministry.

By Lee Jaeeun(jenn@heraldcorp.com)