Cotton picking 08
This article over at RFE/RL is another attack on Central Asian governments’ continued use of child labor in the cotton industry. It does a fair job of spreading the fact that Uzbekistan isn’t the only offender, merely the greatest by virtue of having the largest cotton crop. The simple truth is that child labor is endemic in the region, and not just for cotton. The seriousness of this issue is apparently a matter or taste, as some readers have suggested that it’s not a big deal, and that the children themselves are in favor of the system. I, however, remain skeptical about whether children should be allowed to defend a system they have no control over. And I guess Wal-Mart agrees with me. It was bound to happen eventually.
Richard Coyle, Wal-Mart’s senior director of international corporate affairs, told RFE/RL that the company is actively engaged in talks with the Uzbek government on the issue.
“Wal-Mart has instructed its supply base to remove Uzbek cotton,” Coyle said. “We’re doing this in order to effect change in Uzbekistan, where there are significant amounts of children forced to work in the cotton fields to harvest the cotton.”
Fellow Central Asian cotton producers Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan halted the use of child labor in the 1990s, while Turkmenistan adopted a law banning the practice in 2005.
As for Kazakhstan not using child labor to pick cotton anymore, I certainly was still seeing children in the fields when I was there from 2005-2007. Even so, I was told that it was not like it used to be, and that through the 90s, with the economic crises of the entire region, everyone in the countryside was just fighting to survive, with situations in the cities not being much better.
I have a friend currently attending the big Cotton Conference going on in Tashkent this week, and they’ve offered to do a write-up for Registan. I think we’ll be keeping things anonymous. Just because I’m ok with the fact that my big mouth might keep me from getting another Uzbek visa anytime soon, that doesn’t mean they should have to suffer, too! Look forward to that - maybe there’ll be pictures!
Children, of course, have their own opinions on child labor. But this isn’t something you can compare to letting children vacuum or wash the dishes, especially considering that the ‘choice’ to pick cotton is mostly an illusion, where such a choice is said to exist. Children might like the chance to get out from under their parents’ eyes, get out in the fresh air, and spend time with their classmates. That’s all well and good - but it’s not something that requires 10-hour-days and 40-kg quotas. The following quote is also from the above article, and comes from Tajikistan.
“Students who go to harvest cotton know that cotton is Tajik nation’s wealth,” Zoidov says. “The students go to cotton farms of their own accord. No one, including no one from the university administration, has forced them to go. They have gone to the fields voluntarily.”
But the students themselves say the choice is not up to them.
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Tags: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Cotton.
Posted by michaelhancock on October 10th, 2008
Permalink | Trackback | Comments: 7
Comments
Time: 10/10/2008, 6:00 pm
If these corporations have people like Hilary Clinton on board, then no wonder they are so vain.
No problem if these corporations can influence by spreading good. But I am affraid next thing we will see will be Wall-Mart establishing democracy in the World with tanks and jet bombers.
It hurts sometimes to see so rich people are so stupid.
It is hard to believe in Wall-Mart’s good intentions after visiting one of their stores and seeing all these underpaid immigrants working for them, and huge stacks of Coca-Cola and all these fat people addicted to fast-food devouring Big Macs and french fries in a MacDonald’s
Time: 10/10/2008, 7:36 pm
oldschool boy–I wouldn’t worry too much about Walmart tanks and planes, even if they do ever exist half of them wouldn’t work and the other half would break down before they ever crossed the county line…
To bring up something a little bit different but related, I heard from some of my relatives in Uzbekistan that they’ve seen people adults getting rounded up by the police this year and bussed out to the cotton fields overtly against their will. I suspected it wasn’t probably anything new, but they say they’ve never heard of this before–anybody else hearing or seeing things like this now or in the past?
Time: 10/12/2008, 9:30 am
Never heard of anything like forcing folks to cotton picking? I am always amazed to hear what people think about Uzbekistan. Few years ago I was asked by a fellow from former USSR republic if we still have camels walking on the streets. So no surprise to me that people thousands miles away have pretty, let say, different picture.
There is no police that can force people to pick cotton against their will. Unless they are convicts, but I have not yet heard of convicts being engaged in cotton picking. Through I see them often doing public works (like cleaning, building roads, etc).
Time: 10/14/2008, 3:01 pm
Noah,
That is a good one on Wall-Mart:). But I am still scared of the situation when big corporations rule the World. You know, if you get inside any of them, pretty dumb people work in management. As, may be, in governments of most countries.
As for the news from your relatives, it is believable but still very weird, isn’t it? I checked on Fergana.ru and Centrasia.ru, but found nothing in regards to that. Plus, one would still think that after the Fergana events Karimov would not be that crazy to drive his people that far to the edge. Although, of course, most of what happens there does not depend on him, but on his regional petty satraps. But even then, it would need some boldness and resources to pull someting like that off.
Time: 10/15/2008, 4:58 pm
I was wrong.
I just found material on slavery in Uzbekistan on fergana.ru. It says that homeless people are used by Tashken Rehabilitation Centre as slaves. It goes lake this:
Policemen collect homeless people on streets and bring them to the Rehabilitation Centre for reward and get paid certain amount for each delivered man or woman.
The Rehabilitation Centre is rather like prison, they physically abuse and make homeless people work only for food and shelter. The Rehabilitation Centre also sells these people to businessmen from all around Uzbekistan and even Kazakhstan where they work just for food.
Time: 1/28/2009, 11:01 pm
I picked cotton from the age of 8 to 15 and earned money that we needed to buy school clothes. We lived in extreme poverty. We learned the work ethic and helped our parents. though the texas heat was a killer, not to mention the insects that fell inside our shirts we had fun working and got paid cash every saturday.
Time: 10/10/2008, 4:32 pm
I’ve never met anyone who, as an adult, still holds to the line that going to pick cotton is voluntary. Is there even a serious question about whether this activity is voluntary or not? Seriously.
The idea that Wal-Mart’s corporate representatives would be engaged in active talks with the Uzbek government on this topic is fascinating. Are we in an age of corporation-led international negotiations? A close friend of mine (who incidentally was born in Uzb and picked cotton as a youth) actually works for Wal-Mart at the corporate office in Arkansas. This friend indicates to me that there has been a climate change at Wal-Mart and the higher-ups there are taking very seriously the fact that a huge corporation like Wal-Mart can actually effect change on a global level. Interesting…