Child Labour in the Cotton Industry of Uzbekistan: A Sociological Study

Uzbekistan, with its enormous potential of natural resources like oil, natural gas, water, gold and minerals, has made it as one of the most potential investment countries in the globalized world after its separation from Soviet Union. The available natural resources have not been exploited yet by the state of Uzbekistan due to its lack of skilled manpower, sophisticated technology and marketization which could have sustained the ever growing population of the country if utilized properly. On the other hand agriculture which comprises around 40 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Uzbekistan has turned black and white from coloured in the Post-Soviet era due to the decline in the sophisticated technology and manpower put into place and practice by the Russians. And the cotton industry, which constitutes around 47 percent of the agricultural production of Uzbekistan, gives billions of dollars in annual return. Due to the downsizing of skilled manpower and technology the cotton cultivation which was earlier in the pre-Soviet era practised by machines is now done by hand and often with the use of school children. Uzbekistan- the fifth largest exporter and second largest producer of cotton in the world- mostly cultivates cotton by the dint of child labour- mainly school children. From the first week of September every year schools are closed down for two to three months and all the children and teachers, irrespective of age and gender, are ordered by the autocratic state administration to take part in cotton-picking. Daily quotas are assigned to everyone by the supervisors and farm directors and those who do not meet the set quotas are bound to face punishment. The forced labour of children by the state of Uzbekistan is unique in its dimension and magnitude in the sense that in the rest of the world there are reasons like poverty, illiteracy etc. responsible for child labour but in Uzbekistan it is completely state-controlled to meet the totalitarian interests. Though the magnitude of the problem has been expanding in that more and more children turn to be working children, the amount of attention that the problem receives from the government and various non-governmental agencies is not in tune with its size because the tender-aged school going boys and girls who are part of the problem are not in a position to present their case before the concerned authorities as the administration in itself is fully responsible for this inhuman institution of child labour in Uzbekistan. Thus, the traditional nature of the problem becomes a limiting factor for its solution. 7 Amidst the plethora of literature on working children, the present work on the same subject is distinguished by its extensiveness and holistic treatment. Not only that a considerable number of child labourers were interviewed but their employers and parents were also interviewed to make the study multidimensional in character. In-depth interviews of human rights activists, senior citizens, government officials and social workers were also taken into consideration to make the findings of the study more viable. The case studies at the end of the findings chapter help to provide a holistic picture of the problem. I am sure this work will provide a very valuable addition to the existing literature on child labour in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan, besides being useful to those directly working with such children