Child Labor In Uzbekistan

Do you ever think of where the cotton in your clothes come from? You might not know that cotton is forcibly picked and harvested by children as young as ten in Uzbekistan. These kids are forced to work in horrendous conditions for many hours every day. These conditions threaten their health and education. In Uzbekistan, Child Labor in the cotton industry due to extreme work conditions is a global human rights violation impacting children today.

Child labor in the cotton industry is an issue in many parts of the world, but especially an \issue in Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan, children as young as ten and teenagers and young adults are forced to do difficult labor in fields in extreme conditions. The government of Uzbekistan forces over a million

For example, children working in cotton fields and ginning factories work in terrible conditions. Factories in which children work in, which also have been called sweatshops, are cramped and small, dirty, and badly lit. In fields, children work up to twelve hours in extreme temperature receiving little or no pay in return. Spraying cotton crops in fields with toxic pesticides is also extremely common in most cotton producing countries such as Uzbekistan. As a result from these working conditions, child laborers suffer from exhaustion, heat stroke, and malnutrition. The chemicals exposed to children in the fields can cause tremors, nausea, weakness, and in serious case, paralysis and death. Studies have shown that children who spray pesticides in cotton fields experience blurred vision, extreme dizziness, headaches, difficulty in concentration, trouble remembering, difficulty in understanding, feeling depressed and numbness. According to Cotton Campaign a global coalition of human rights, labor, responsible investor and business organizations, ”Every year the government of Uzbekistan forcibly mobilizes over a million citizens to grow and harvest cotton.” (“Uzbekistan Forced Labor Problem” Article 23) This forced labor can also risk the chances of child laborers to have a future. Because of forced labor, children are missing out on their education. Children are at risk for not going to school for months, seasonal child workers pick cotton in fields from April to November. Some kids didn’t have the opportunity at all to have an education and go to school. Child labor is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children. In conclusion, the labor in the cotton industry deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their