Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 22
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
In 2018, 93 percent of the cotton pickers in Uzbekistan participated in the cotton picking process voluntarily, the Uzbek media reported referring to the preliminary monitoring results of the International Labor Organization (ILO), released on Nov. 21.
According to the information, 169 heads of local administrations and officials were dismissed, demoted or fined for violations related to forced labor during the cotton harvest campaign.
In the course of the study, qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used, more than 11,000 interviews were conducted on the fields and in the framework of focus groups, in-depth interviews and telephone surveys. In particular, in September-November alone, 3,000 cotton harvest participants were surveyed.
According to the monitoring data, there was no systematic involvement of students, teachers and medical workers in cotton picking this year. However, there was hiring of groups from other government agencies, organizations and enterprises.
Monitoring in the fields showed that drinking water was provided in 87 percent of cases, lunch – in 82 percent, and the toilet was available only on about 46 percent of cotton fields. While increasing wages, some farmers (especially in areas where there were many collectors) paid less attention to working conditions, and in some cases believed that the team leader was responsible for this. Other farmers tried to be more respectful and organized better conditions to attract pickers.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations of Uzbekistan, it was planned to attract more than 2.6 million people to pick cotton and allocate 2.5 trillion soums to pay for their labor this year.
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