Exploitation of children in cotton fields still persists

18 Oct '10

1 min read

According to the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, the human rights groups of Uzbekistan continued their demonstration against forced child labor which is one of the means through which cotton is produced in the country.

Shavkat Mirziyayev, the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, has released a statement that 600,000 tons of cotton had been offered for sale and it has been expected to generate around $500 million.

Uzbekistan had approved the legislation against child labor in the year 2009 and had also signed the child labor related conventions of International Labor Organization, but the exploitation of children for various works still persists there.

During the current cotton harvesting season, security forces have been tightened in the fields to force the state workers to meet the government quotas of cotton harvest and also to keep away the reporters.

Five human rights groups from Samarkand, Tashkent, Jizzakh, and Karshi have served a joint notice to the overseas companies to boycott the cotton from Uzbek because of the use of forced child labor and inhumane conditions of work under a system wherein the farmers are forced to meet the state quotas and accept the set prices.

Fibre2fashion News Desk-India

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