Education ceases as cotton harvest begins

Many high schools and universities in Uzbekistan have been shut down, with students and teachers being forced to harvest cotton, according to Cotton Campaign, a coalition of labour and human rights agencies, writes Raveena Aulakh for The Star.com.

“That is what we’ve heard in our early reports… that schools and universities have been particularly hit this year,” said Matt Fischer-Daly of Cotton Campaign. “Education has ceased entirely in some parts of the country as teachers fulfill their cotton quotas.” Doctors and nurses are also being forced to work in the fields this year, leaving patients to fend for themselves, Fischer-Daly said.

Uzbekistan, a dry, landlocked country in Central Asia, is notorious for the autocratic rule of President Islam Karimov, who has been in power since 1990. It is the only state in the world that sponsors slave labour, forcing more than two million of its people, including children, to pick cotton every harvest for little or no pay, labour activists say.
Full report on The http://Star.com site