![[Uzbekistan] Child labourer in cotton fields.](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200311208.jpg.webp?itok=EoJWqj5T "Teachers and pupils at work in the cotton fields")
As this year’s cotton-picking season wraps up in Uzbekistan, the authorities in the Ferghana Valley region have come under criticism for continuing the practice of using government employees and child labour to harvest the country’s main cash crop.
"Currently, the entire population, from junior school students to professors are cotton pickers,” a secondary school teacher in the eastern city of Andijan, capital of the province with the same name, said.
Uzbekistan is the world’s fifth-largest cotton producer and according to the CIA World Factbook the second largest cotton exporter after the US.
Local observers say that virtually all government offices, secondary and higher education institutions in Andijan province have no choice but to send their people for cotton picking.
However, those who do not want to toil in the fields for several weeks can pay around 1,000 Uzbek soms (a little less than US $1) per day and escape the backbreaking work. ”We collect money in order not to go to the cotton fields," the teacher maintained.
"For five days 5,000 soms [around $5] were taken from me,” said another teacher, who wished to remain anonymous. “We collect money and give it to our director. We have no idea who he gives this money to or how he spends it."
The situation is more or less similar in other schools of Andijan city. IRIN witnessed how one of the teachers at specialised school No 34 collected around $1 from each teacher for each working day they did not go to the fields.
Many said they were against such procedures and even wanted to protest, but were threatened with dismissal.
The economy in Andijan is under scrutiny by the authorities after government forces violently suppressed protests in May, in which upwards of 1,000 were killed, according to rights groups.
"Teachers should be at school and not in the cotton fields,” said one teacher. “But what can we do if such ‘bad politics’ is in the province? If you refuse, then people treat you as ‘an enemy of the state’ and remind you about recent ‘terrorist’ events,” the school instructor added, referring to May’s violent clampdown on protests in the city.
Iskandar Madaminov, a senior official from the provincial department of education, flatly denied the practice of paying money for not going to work the cotton fields.
Compared to their counterparts in urban areas, teachers in rural areas prefer not to pay the fee and instead go picking cotton with their pupils, simply because they cannot afford the fees. A month-long exemption would require some $30, which is roughly equal to the average monthly salary of a teacher in rural areas.
"There is only one class up and running in our school as the rest are working the fields. People used to say that pupils would go to pick cotton from the second year. But now on Saturdays and Sundays even first-year pupils are taken to the fields," said a teacher in the Andijan district.
"They are children. What if they get sick? Who will be responsible?” a teacher from the Altynkul district asked, adding: “Even kindergartens were closed because all the staff were taken to pick cotton."
The rules in government offices are no different and employees have to work the cotton fields for at least 10 days per season.
Doctors and nurses at the Andijan provincial clinic of the State Medical Institute confirmed the new ‘exemption tax’. “They say that with that money they hire “mardikers” [daily wage labourers - mainly people from districts and students] to pick cotton for us,” said Gavkhar Pulatova (not her real name), a nurse at the clinic.
Local rights activists, who wished to remain anonymous fearing government reprisal, said that the situation was similar in the neighbouring Ferghana and Namangan provinces of the valley.
Rights activists in Namangan said that though there was almost no cotton left on the fields, women and children were still forced to gather cotton. “If someone refuses, he will be reminded that he is against president [Islam Karimov]. And it means, that he will be subjected to imprisonment or persecution,” a local activist said.
Abdikadir Niyazov, an official from Namangan’s Pap district administration, said that all people were picking cotton voluntarily. “I do not deny that the school children gather cotton too, but nobody is forcing them to work. They do it because of patriotism. People in our district try not to leave a single gram of ‘white gold’ on the cotton field," he said.
"Currently, the entire population, from junior school students to professors are cotton pickers,” a secondary school teacher in the eastern city of Andijan, capital of the province with the same name, said.
Uzbekistan is the world’s fifth-largest cotton producer and according to the CIA World Factbook the second largest cotton exporter after the US.
Local observers say that virtually all government offices, secondary and higher education institutions in Andijan province have no choice but to send their people for cotton picking.
However, those who do not want to toil in the fields for several weeks can pay around 1,000 Uzbek soms (a little less than US $1) per day and escape the backbreaking work. ”We collect money in order not to go to the cotton fields," the teacher maintained.
"For five days 5,000 soms [around $5] were taken from me,” said another teacher, who wished to remain anonymous. “We collect money and give it to our director. We have no idea who he gives this money to or how he spends it."
The situation is more or less similar in other schools of Andijan city. IRIN witnessed how one of the teachers at specialised school No 34 collected around $1 from each teacher for each working day they did not go to the fields.
Many said they were against such procedures and even wanted to protest, but were threatened with dismissal.
The economy in Andijan is under scrutiny by the authorities after government forces violently suppressed protests in May, in which upwards of 1,000 were killed, according to rights groups.
"Teachers should be at school and not in the cotton fields,” said one teacher. “But what can we do if such ‘bad politics’ is in the province? If you refuse, then people treat you as ‘an enemy of the state’ and remind you about recent ‘terrorist’ events,” the school instructor added, referring to May’s violent clampdown on protests in the city.
Iskandar Madaminov, a senior official from the provincial department of education, flatly denied the practice of paying money for not going to work the cotton fields.
Compared to their counterparts in urban areas, teachers in rural areas prefer not to pay the fee and instead go picking cotton with their pupils, simply because they cannot afford the fees. A month-long exemption would require some $30, which is roughly equal to the average monthly salary of a teacher in rural areas.
"There is only one class up and running in our school as the rest are working the fields. People used to say that pupils would go to pick cotton from the second year. But now on Saturdays and Sundays even first-year pupils are taken to the fields," said a teacher in the Andijan district.
"They are children. What if they get sick? Who will be responsible?” a teacher from the Altynkul district asked, adding: “Even kindergartens were closed because all the staff were taken to pick cotton."
The rules in government offices are no different and employees have to work the cotton fields for at least 10 days per season.
Doctors and nurses at the Andijan provincial clinic of the State Medical Institute confirmed the new ‘exemption tax’. “They say that with that money they hire “mardikers” [daily wage labourers - mainly people from districts and students] to pick cotton for us,” said Gavkhar Pulatova (not her real name), a nurse at the clinic.
Local rights activists, who wished to remain anonymous fearing government reprisal, said that the situation was similar in the neighbouring Ferghana and Namangan provinces of the valley.
Rights activists in Namangan said that though there was almost no cotton left on the fields, women and children were still forced to gather cotton. “If someone refuses, he will be reminded that he is against president [Islam Karimov]. And it means, that he will be subjected to imprisonment or persecution,” a local activist said.
Abdikadir Niyazov, an official from Namangan’s Pap district administration, said that all people were picking cotton voluntarily. “I do not deny that the school children gather cotton too, but nobody is forcing them to work. They do it because of patriotism. People in our district try not to leave a single gram of ‘white gold’ on the cotton field," he said.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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