Since the beginning of the cotton campaign in Uzbekistan some unscrupulous teachers began to divide students into two camps.

– In the beginning of this academic year, principals and teachers of some Uzbek schools began inviting schoolchildren’s parents for individual talks and tell them “the cotton campaign is starting soon, if you have the opportunity to leave your child at home, then let’s talk it over.” Thus, they demand a bribe from them. If the family can afford it, parents will be able to save their child this season from picking cotton and anguishes children face in the cotton fields. But if parents cannot afford it, then the child is included in the so-called list of “not being able to pay”, and instead of going to school, will have to spend time in cotton fields until tale fall, – says Davlatoy Murodova, resident of Andijan.

According to her, many schoolchildren of Uzbek schools find themselves in such a humiliating situation every year since the beginning of the cotton campaign in the country.

– It happened last year, and starting this year all over again. Last year, I personally talked to teacher and principal of a school where my three children study, and paid them 400,000 som to keep my children from picking cotton. Obviously, this money will not go to the school fund, but rather they will be divided between a principal and teachers. Mothers, who do not have money, offer gifts to teachers. Thus, they are saving their children from picking cotton. And if the class teacher is male, the parents treat him in a cafe or dining room. But not everyone has that opportunity. Therefore, so many children have to pick cotton in very difficult conditions, – says our Davlatoy to Jarayon.

In her opinion, the annual cotton campaign allows the school principals and teachers of many Uzbek schools to makes profits at the expense of parents.

– For example, if there are thirty students in the class, usually about ten of them do not go to pick cotton. Their norm to collect cotton is done by those children, whose parents were not able to “thank” schoolteachers. Therefore, the principal and the class teacher, who took money from the parents, avoid dismissal. During such cotton campaigns schoolteachers make good money for themselves, – says Davlatoy, whose three children study in one of the schools in Andijan.

Davlatoy says she also collected cotton in cotton fields of Uzbekistan. Bu today, she says, there are many cases when teachers grossly violate the rights of students forcing them to pick cotton in the toughest conditions.

– Teachers often insult, humiliate and even put in danger the lives of their students. For example, last year, my son’s classmate Zuhra suffered appendicitis during the harvest. When the girl could not bear the pain and started crying, the teacher told her “you are making this up on purpose”, and forced her to pick cotton in the field. Only when a girl started to cry loudly in pain, she was taken to the hospital. Doctors said the teachers, “If you brought her a little later, she would have died”, – says Davlatoy.

She also resents the fact that today the leaders of the country care more about fulfilling the cotton plans than about the education and health of children.

– There is no one official who would say “Let our children learn to become better educated.” I have the opportunity, and so every year I send money home to my children to save them from picking cotton. I know it is a crime to give bribe, but the current situation forces us to do so, – says Davlatoy adding at the same time that parents of students, who keep their children from cotton, are hiring teachers to educate their children at home.

According to Davlatoy, who is currently working outside of Uzbekistan, these days students, who live in the villages of Andijan region, are taken to cotton fields.

– Recently I talken on the phone with a friend who works in a rural school. She said that students of senior classes were taken to pick cotton. Their situation is very terrible. There are not properly fed. Because of poor hygienic conditions, deceases like typhoid fever have spread among children. There’s a nurse, but she does not even have the usual medications for headache, – says Davlatoy.

In 2011, the government of Uzbekistan adopted a law “On termination of forced child labor.” Moreover, in 2011-2012 the authorities categorically prohibited private farmers to use child labor.

However, these laws remain only on paper, and it is no secret that today the Uzbek authorities still continue using forced labor, including forced child labor.

Many international organizations, in particular, human rights activists, both local and international, call foreign business structures to for boycott the Uzbek cotton.

Gulnora RAVSHAN