5 March, 2010 - The recent annual census registration across the country left a 27-year old woman in Zobel gewog, Pemagatshel, perplexed.

Her attempt at having her three children registered with the national census failed this year, like the many attempts she made in the past four years.

She is clueless about the fathers of her children.

But the name and citizenship identity card of the father is a must for census.

There are about seven children in Zobel alone this year, between the ages of 1 to 14, who are unable to register in the census, gewog officials said.

"We're helpless until the mother provides details of the biological father," Zobel gup Dorji Wangdi said.

The 27-year old mother had also filed a court case some time in 2008 for her eldest child, who is now 4 years old, alleging a man and his son as the child's father.

DNA test results later proved that they were not the father. Sarpang court had dealt with a similar case in 2007, where the DNA test against an alleged father also came out negative.

While home ministry officials are still collecting statistics of children in the country unable to register in census because of a missing parent, there were more than 200 cases of fatherless children in Zhemgang in 2008 and at least three such cases in Kanglung gewog, Trashigang.

One of the tshogpas in Trong gewog, Zhemgang, said they finally registered 54 children in the 2009 census, but nine children were left out because their mothers failed to trace their fathers.

"Although we've listed the details of just these nine children, there are about 20 children in the gewog without paternal details," he said.

Gewog officials in Pemagatsel said the culture of night hunting had aggravated the situation of fatherless children in the country.

A census officer said that most women said the father to be either civil servants, who came on official tour, drivers, businessmen, students, contractors or farmers.

"There were also instances where the mother did not want to reveal the child's father, because their relationship might be categorised as incestuous," he said.

There are also few cases where the mother's brother, cousin, uncle or in-laws let their names and identity cards be used as the child's father in the census, a gewog official said.

"Some relatives help the mother with their identity cards just to put the child in school," he said. "We feel sorry for those children, who we believe that the fathers are bonafide Bhutanese citizens although the mother could not determine who the father was."

Home minister Lyonpo Minjur Dorji said that the ministry is studying the situation and working out a strategy to protect Bhutanese children born out of wedlock.

"We're working on developing birth certificates because until now the census is dependent on health cards," he said. "Health cards will become subsidiary documents."

He said that the ministry is also working on developing forms for those without paternal details.

-Kensel Online/Asia News Network