Uzbek govt acts to halt child labour in cotton fields

14 Sep '12

1 min read

It appears that the world pressure has finally forced Uzbekistan to stop using child labour for plucking cotton from fields.

There are reports that parents as well as employees of private firms and state-run institutions are temporarily going to fields to pluck cotton, instead of children.

The Government has asked enterprises and merchant establishments to financially help students of academic institutions, in order to keep them away from cotton fields.

Local legislatures from Angren, a town situated about 100 km away from Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, have appealed to shop keepers to support cotton pickers by giving food or in any other form.

It may be recalled that in response to reports about child labour being employed in cotton harvesting in Uzbekistan, many Western nations boycotted import of Uzbek cotton. Moreover, several global apparel brands stopped using Uzbek cotton in their products.

As a result, the Uzbekistan Government was forced to take steps to stop the use of child labour for plucking ‘white gold’ during the current cotton harvesting season.

It may be noted that most of the cotton in Uzbekistan needs to be hand-picked, as the country lacks machines for the same.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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