All Photographs copyright by Thomas Grabka

LJ user aqua_snezhok posted photos of cotton picking in Uzbekistan. The country is one of the five leading exporters of cotton in the world, and cotton is major export production in the country. Most cotton in the United States, Europe and Australia is harvested mechanically, either by a cotton picker, a machine that removes the cotton from the boll without damaging the cotton plant, or by a cotton stripper, which strips the entire boll off the plant. In Uzbekistan, it is still being done by hands, and often, like on these photos, by children.

If they are lucky, these 12-year olds can earn 100-200 sums (US 38 cents) per day harvesting cotton working from 7am to 5pm. Many children earn nothing at all for their labours, writes the Environmental Justice Foundation.

neweurasia Uzbekistan has covered cotton picking on several occasions before. Nick spoke about the SOAS conference “Cotton Sector in Central Asia: Economic Policy and Development Challenges” and the ICG report, The Curse of Cotton: Central Asia’s Destructive Monocultur. “Naturally, there’s something for anyone interested in Central Asia: development, agriculture, politics, human rights, history etc. “, wrote Nick.

Here is a comment from a Livejournal user yidrisov (RUS) to give another view, the one that justifies the practice:

“The reasons are the following:

№1. Attracting pupils/students/soldiers to the work in the fields was and remains a common practice in all former USSR countries for a long time. Once it allowed to partially solve the problem of lack of the workforce and machinery. Thus, it was necessary for economic reasons.

№2. In modern Uzbekistan cotton picking is one of the main sources for filling the monetary reserves of the state, therefore strict state regulation. As the experience of Russian oil pipeline taught us, the absence of strict state control leads to the theft of the strategic resources by sly people. Therefore, bodies responsible for defense of national interests control the cotton picking in Uzbekistan.

№3. Taking into account the close attention to cotton picking from the state, the heads of the local administration are concerned about conforming with the plan for cotton production. This is coupled with fast salination of water and soil, old Soviet machines (there is no alternative to it, no matter what the guys from UzCase say), and migration of workforce to the neighboring countries to earn money. Therefore, attracting the pupils, students and soldiers to harvesting - is one of the few ways to sustain Uzbekistan’s extensive economy.”

You can see more photos of children picking cotton here.