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leo

Uzbekistan

December 18, 2008

        Recently, the Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev has signed a decree that puts a ban on using the child labor in cotton plantations in Uzbekistan. Many analytics considered this move of the Uzbek government, as a positive reaction to the constant pressure of international NGO’s and the world’s business community on the Uzbek government. However, according to different information coming from Uzbekistan, the cotton plantations are still full of students, who are urged to go to the cotton fields.

The problem is that by the Uzbek law a person above 16 is not considered to be a child. Therefore, now, thousands of students all over Uzbekistan have to work from dawn to dusk to fulfill the ‘daily plan’ of picking cotton, which varies from 60 to 80 kilos per day. My student friend from Andijan region told me that due to the water shortages, this years cotton harvest is not good, and it is sometimes physically impossible to collect 80 kilos of cotton during one day. Moreover, there are cases when older students take away cotton of younger ones, thus having them face severe penalties from field supervisors (teachers). Plus, Ramadan is in September this year. Ramadan, the holy month of Muslim, lasts 30 days, during which strict fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset. My friend says that a lot of students feel strong fatigue by the end of the day, as it’s still hot in the fields and they cannot drink water. Moreover, the food that is served in the fields is not nutritious, and as a result, a lot of student had significantly lost their weight.

Another bad impact of this is that students have to miss their classes at school for at least two months. Students, who want to study, are not happy with this, especially those, who pay for their studies. It is unbelievable that a government, who makes students pay university fees, has them leave their schools for two or sometimes even for three months to make them collect cotton for the government. Moreover, the university fees are rising from year to year in Uzbekistan. Usually, families have to cut significant portion of their budget to allow their kids go to universities. Uzbekistan is in top-three of cotton exporter countries in the world. Its revenue from cotton is unbelievably a lot. Moreover, there is no transparency in country’s budget, and ordinary citizen do not know where the money goes. Where is the justice?

I am very glad that the world community made the Uzbek government to ban a child labor in cotton fields. I am also glad that such business giants as Tesco, Levi’s and Wal-Mart put ban on Uzbek cotton. As a result, the Uzbek government had to admit that child labor is used in growing cotton in Uzbekistan, and ban it. I hope that the world community will also put pressure on the Uzbek government not to use the students’ labor in cotton plantations. However, this should be a question to the Uzbek officials, as its them who are losing their future by raising poor, unhealthy, uneducated youth.

More entries: Journalist and journalism in Uzbekistan., Child labor is banned, but what about students’ labor?, Demographics of Uzbekistan, provinces of Uzbekistan, About Uzbekistan, Ten Tips for Email Etiquette , Evidence of Karimov's Crimes - and CIA Participation, Uzbek folk singer receives suspended sentence for song about Andijan crackdown, Why World Peace is on the Horizon, HI!

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