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Cotton
harvest, Uzbekistan
24 Sep - 10 Oct 04 |
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| Introduction.
Gathering cotton in the autumn
has been considered the most important part of life for an Uzbek
citizen since Soviet times. But the hefty dollar revenues reaped
by the government from its monopoly export and processing business
are made on the backs of children who provide cheap labour. Many
miss up to three months of school and make just a few cents for
weeks of hard toil. Their living conditions are squalid, they are
often hungry and as a result many fall ill. Some children have even
died. In a wide-ranging investigation, IWPR journalists travelled
to cotton fields across Uzbekistan, speaking to children as young
as seven as they picked the crop known as white gold. We also met
the officials who sent them there and defend the use of child labour
to gather the country’s most important harvest. |
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