Tajikistan’s children still forced to harvest cotton

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DUSHANBE -- Despite laws and government pronouncements, forced child labour remains a part of Tajikistan’s cotton harvest.

According to preliminary data collected by The Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law, The Association of Young Jurists (AMPARO) and the Shifo medical clinic, local authorities continue to use forced child labour widely in the cotton fields of Tajikistan. These nongovernmental organisations conducted their monitoring as part of the “The Promotion of Children’s Freedom from Forced Labour in Tajikistan’s Cotton Fields” project, carried out with the support of the Open Society Institute (OSI).

According to project co-ordinator Gulchekhra Rakhmanova, the project conducted monitoring at all of the country’s large cotton fields, particularly in the Sogdii Oblast, Khatlon Oblast and the Region of Republican Subordination.

“The results showed that this year — as in previous years — secondary-school students were used in the cotton harvest. In previous years children were made to pick cotton during school hours; this year children harvested on the weekends. This is a serious violation of the terms of international standards and national legislation. If children refused to go to the fields, their teachers threatened to expel them from school or used different types of punishments”, Rakhmanova said.

The use of child labour in cotton fields began during the time of the Soviet Union. In Tajikistan, cotton profits make up about 11 percent of GDP.

Children ages 12 to 18 work in the fields. But, according to some teachers, 8-year-old children were also forced to work. The field work season is from September to December. Children work under unfavourable conditions, including hot weather, poor quality food and water and a lack of necessary medicines.

In January 2006, President Emomali Rakhmon issued a decree banning the use of students in work that harms the educational process throughout the school year. However, the decree has not been fully implemented.

Hazardous and exploitative child labour also violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Tajikistan government ratified the Convention in 1993, obligating the country to comply with it under international law.

Makhina’s two children, who reside in Nosiri Khisrav, Khatlon Oblast, help their school harvest “white gold” every year. This year, the children worked after school and on weekends.

“I don’t like it that my children have to gather the harvest every year, let alone in difficult conditions. They pick cotton in the cold, the children are not fed, they drink water from a ditch and, of course, their labour is unpaid. But they were required to go out to the fields as the school teachers threatened to throw them out of school”, Makhina said.

On condition of anonymity, one of the teachers at the only school in the Nosiri Khirsav region, “School №1”, confirmed that this year students went to the fields. According to her, “5th- through 11th-grade students worked after school on a voluntary basis and received pay of 25 dirams (US $.06) per kilogram of cotton”.

Nargis Shokhmansurova, director of the nongovernmental organisation “Shifo”, said the same situation was observed in the Shaartuz Region.

“Children are not torn from the education process, but they are forced to go to the cotton fields on the weekends”, she said. Two 7th-grade students in Shaartuz Region’s Secondary School №1, who asked to remain anonymous, said that from October to November the form master “made” them pick cotton.

“Every day we were supposed to pick from three to five kilograms of cotton. Each class had to turn in 100 kg for the entire cotton harvest. The work day began at 8 and ended at 4. Many of us lived far away and it took an average of 30 minutes to walk there. They did not feed us or give us anything to drink. We brought food from home. A few kids did not eat at all. We did not receive any money. The teachers were saying that the money we earned would go to the schools’ needs—they did not say what they (those needs) were”, the students said.

The students added, “If we refused to go to the field, the teachers threatened to expel us from school, beat our hands with their pointers or empty plastic bottles. Parents who did not allow their children to pick cotton had to provide their kids with several kilograms of cotton. They had to buy it from farmers”. In this case, no complaints would be made against the student.

The situation is similar in northern Tajikistan. Eleventh-grade students at School №41 in Bobojon Gafurovskii Region, Sogdii Oblast, said that during October and November they picked cotton after school.

“No one is coerced. The school administration offered to help farmers harvest their crops. Many of us agreed. The opportunity arose to earn some money—20 dirams (US $.05) a kilogram. We bought additional school supplies with this money”, said one student.

Headmaster Maruf Tukhtayev said that students are not made to work: “Generally, students who wanted to help went to the fields to help the farmers”.

Nozira Muminova, a resident of the Ovcha Kalacha zhamoat whose three children attend the school, said that two of her children were forced to pick cotton.

“I forbade my son to pick cotton. After that, he was expelled from school. He did not go there for a week”, the woman said.

The conflict was resolved after one of the relatives came to an agreement with the headmaster for her son to go back to school, said the mother.

“I am categorically against my son picking cotton. He is small and hard work could adversely affect his health. I send my kid to school, where he should study, not work in the fields, where he is neither fed nor paid”, Nozira said.

According to Gulchekhra Rakhmanova, on January 19, the government of Tajikistan will furnish the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child a periodic national report on its implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

“They will have to answer the UN’s questions, one of which will be devoted to this issue. We are hoping that the governmental delegation will be able to answer all of the questions raised by the member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child”, said the human rights activist.