 |
| The
Cost of Uzbek White Gold Photographs
by Thomas Grabka, text by Institute
for War & Peace Reporting |
|
|
|
|
| Official
reaction. Uzbekistan has so
far refused to sign the international convention prohibiting child
labour. In response, 18 of the country’s human rights groups
have appealed to the international community calling for a ban on
children harvesting cotton. Authorities claim it is an economic
necessity to employ children during the harvest. They pay about
36,000 sums for one tonne of cotton gathered by hand and more than
41,000 sums if it is picked by a combine harvester. Local and regional
politicians, meanwhile, deny the country’s children are forced
into the cotton fields to perform heavy labour. They say they volunteer
to bring in the harvest out of patriotism and a sense of obligation
to their homeland. “Human rights activists can think about
violations of children’s rights. It is not something for us
to debate,” said one education department official in the
southern Kashkadarya region. |
|
| © IWPR |
|
| << |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| About photographer: Thomas
Grabka >> |
|
| Report based on IWPR's Investigation:
“Patriotic”
Uzbek Child Labourers By K Ashurov & S Kurbanov in Samarkand; M Azamatova, M Boboev
& T Karaev in Fergana, Tashkent and Karshi, respectively; G Bukharbaeva
in Tashkent. |
|
|
Click
image for a full size view. |
