Children born from child marriage in remote areas will have difficulty accessing social security policies. — Illustrative Photo tienphong.vn

LÂM ĐỒNG — On the birth certificates of more than 200 children in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng, there is a blank space where the names of their fathers should be.

These youngsters, living in Đơn Dương District, were born out of wedlock, a consequence of young ethnic people dropping out of school, falling in love at a young age and having unplanned pregnancies.

Working far from home, Ra Kh, born in 2003, fell in love with a man three years ago but he was a distant relative and her family and community did not approve of the relationship.

They left home and rented a house to live together, against the better wishes of her close family.

She then got pregnant and gave birth to Sangu, but at that time, she was only 17, and too young to register for marriage.

Their relationship soon turned sour, and the couple would argue often before eventually breaking up.

It was not long after that they got into conflicts and broke up.

The pressure became too much for the baby's father and two years ago he left and never returned leaving Ra Kh. She returned home and now her parents help her raise the child.

Ma Dâu, now 62 years old from K'ho ethnic group in Kambutte Village, Tu Tra Commune, gave birth to a child out of wedlock more than 20 years ago so knows only full well the struggles of being a single parent.

At the age of 41, she got pregnant with another ethnic minority man and gave birth to a daughter named MaK. However, MaK's father refused to accept her as his own child.

"Life as a single mother is very hard. Every day I have to herd cows to earn money to buy food to feed MaK. Because I don't have enough money to send my child to school, I took MaK to herd cows with me,” she told Tiền Phong (Vanguard) newspaper.

According to the People's Committee of Đơn Dương District, Tu Tra Commune is home to 15,000 people, more than two thirds of whom are from ethnic minority groups such as K'ho, Churu, Cill.

Among 201 children with no fathers on their birth certificates in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, there are 44 cases from Tu Tra Commune.

According to local authorities, the root cause is child marriage among the ethnic minority community.

Lê Thị Hồng Nhung, Vice Chairwoman of Tu Tra Commune People's Committee, said the commune had 14 villages with 58 per cent of ethnic minority population. Most cases of children whose fathers cannot be identified were in ethnic minority areas.

Ha Sách, head of Bockabang Village, said girls gave birth to children without a father for many reasons. Many of them got married when they were underage so they couldn't legally obtain a marriage certificate. Others worked far away, got pregnant by accident and then returned to the village to raise their children alone.

Nguyễn Mai Quân is in charge of maternal care for child marriage women at Tu Tra Commune Health Station. He said in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, three cases of child marriage were discovered in the area.

He added that young people dropped out of school, fell in love early and had unwanted pregnancies. These couples, only about 15-16 years old, lacked knowledge and skills to take care of their family after having babies at too young age.

Marital tragedies of young couples were the cause of many children being born without fathers, he said.

Vice chairwoman Nhung said in a remote commune like Tu Tra, outdated customs still existed. Some cases of child marriage had not been reported to local authorities so it was impossible to fully crack down on it.

For example, in some cases, early marriage was detected only when the girl announced her pregnancy. Then if the police imposed penalties, it was feared that the girl would have an abortion, she said.

Nguyễn Thị Hà, chairwoman of the Women's Union of Đơn Dương District, said the popularity of social networks such as Zalo, Facebook and dating applications offer ethnic girls opportunities to make new friends online and easily fall in love with strangers.

She said local ethnic minority communities had access to knowledge about legal marriage and pregnancy ages but the information often fell on deaf ears as it was not as attractive as what they experienced on social networks.

The risk of early marriage among adolescents was rising and becoming increasingly difficult to control, she said. — VNS