9 2) Questions 32. What is the government’s measure to reduce child suicide? Issue 15. Single Mother and Baby box 1) Current status 33. According to the Statistics Korea, the ratio of babies born out of wedlock in Korea stood at 1.9% as of 2014, which was the lowest among the OECD members (OECD average 40.5%). In addition, there exists severe social prejudice against single parents. The government, pursuant to the Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption, provides foster allowances of KRW 150,000 (until 16 years old) and expenses for psycho-emotional therapy of KRW 200,000 (for maximum 24 months); but when it comes to a child from a singleparent household, foster allowances of KRW 130,000 (until 14 years old) is provided only when the household’s income is under 52% of the median income. 34. Meanwhile, private entities run “baby box” where the parents who could not raise their children on their own can leave their babies. For example, a baby box installed in GwanakGu, Seoul, has sentences on it that read ‘Do not abandon babies born with disabilities or from a single mother. Please open the box and leave them inside if you cannot raise them (refer to Fig. 1 and 2)’. Babies left inside the baby box are handed over to local governments after going through the district police station and district office. In Seoul, abandoned children are brought to the Seoul Child Hospital for medical checkup and then sent to child welfare facilities including orphanage. As of 2017, 210 babies were abandoned in the baby box installed in Gwanak-Gu, but only 154 babies were transferred to the local government and reported to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Abandoning a baby in a baby box is a criminal offense, but the government fails to identify the current status as baby boxes are operated by private entities without permission. It has been ten years since the private entities started to operate baby boxes but the government has not yet come up with measures regarding this issue. 2) Questions 35. How does the government provide support for single mothers and their children? Does the government carry a plan to do conduct a complete enumeration survey to understand the actual situation of single mothers? 36. Please provide exact information including the number of babies abandoned in baby boxes and transferred to child welfare facilities every year since the operation of baby boxes. 37. Please provide information on the process under which babies abandoned in baby boxes are registered and supported with public assistance, and please also explain the reason why the number of babies abandoned in baby boxes and the number of babies transferred to the government does not match.