Forced Child Labor in the Cotton Fields of Uzbekistan

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/lweb22uzbek.html?ref=opinion

Published: June 22, 2008

To the Editor:

“Old Farming Habits Leave Uzbekistan a Legacy of Salt” (news article, June 15) documents the unsustainable effects of decades of mismanagement in Uzbekistan’s cotton sector.

But the article does not mention a central feature of the Uzbek cotton sector: the widespread use of forced child labor. Uzbekistan has continued and even intensified the Soviet-era practice of forcing 10- to 15-year-old children into the fields each harvest season to hand-pick cotton as part of a government policy. Families of these schoolchildren are threatened with sanctions if they fail to obey.

Forced child labor in the Uzbek cotton industry is designed to fill the coffers of the government elite and meet the demands of the international cotton industry and garment retailers who seek to produce the cheapest possible T-shirts for world markets.

Fortunately, some companies are beginning to realize that no profit is worth this level of exploitation of children and are taking steps to eliminate forced child labor from their cotton supply.

Consumers should reward those companies that have such policies and avoid those whose profits are built on forced child labor.

Bama Athreya
Executive Director, International Labor Rights Forum
Washington, June 17, 2008