Having students fail their University degree due to a failure in meeting the right quota for picking cotton is not what we are used to hear. We think of failing classes due to low grades in assessments and exams when we hear “not passing a University degree.”
In Uzbekistan, however, students are being accused for not picking enough cotton. Furthermore, students in schools are being dismissed from class to head out to the fields in order to pick cotton during the harvest seasons.
There have been reports that children at the age of 13 were forced to prepare to pick cotton. And on top of that, these children were given a quota which they have to meet by the end of the day. Hence, they could be working all day and all night. They would be penalized for not meeting that quota. Thus, they basically had no other choice but to work until they meet that quota.
One of the main exports of Uzbekistan is cotton. A few of Uzbekistan’s foreign export companies are H&M, Adidas, Puma, Burberry, Levi. These clothing labels are ready to boycott their buyings of cotton from Uzbekistan if the government does not take on severe changes towards its child labor. These clothing labels will not continue buying cotton from Uzbekistan if it comes from the hands of the young children that are forced to harvest the crop.
This movement of the clothing labels is the ethical action to take in order to force some changes to Uzbekistan’s government. If all buyers of Uzbekistan’s cotton stop buying their cotton supplies from Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan’s cotton company will go bankrupt, which therefore will force Uzbekistan’s government to make some changes in order to prevent this crisis from happening.
Photo: THOMAS GRABKA
I’m really impressed to see someone talking about this tragedy because i think its unfair to take advantage of these poor little kids in such a way. We are all human & i think the government should act immediately against this child labor.
Well done Yonca. I’m looking forward for your next blog.