by Elena
Marsteller
“Sales from $3,” announces the website of H&M,
a retail clothing company that quickly and cheaply manufactures clothing
inspired by current fashion trends. The
ongoing popularity of affordable fashion is evident in the success of brands
like H&M and its contemporaries, as even the First Lady has embraced the
trend geared to the buyer on a budget.
However, a high price is paid for
the production of $10 jeans by others in the global supply chain, especially children
in Uzbekistan, who are forced into labor as cotton pickers during an annual
cotton harvest. According to
We Live Subject to their Orders, a report by a group of Uzbek human rights activists
in partnereship with the International
Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), Uzbekistan is the world’s 6th largest
producer of cotton and the 3rd largest exporter of cotton. Between
September and November, Uzbek cotton exports generate $1
billion in revenue. The child laborers carrying the burden of harvesting
the cash crop are unique because they operate as part of a state-sanctioned
forced labor program, compelling all citizens, including children, to pick
mandated quotas of cotton during the harvest.
Current
State of Child Labor in Uzbekistan
A Human
Rights Watch report states that “International nongovernmental
organizations and foreign media outlets are prevented from operating in
Uzbekistan, making it difficult to report on forced and child labor or other
human rights abuses.” Furthermore, the government of Uzbekistan will not allow
the ILO to send independent experts to observe and control forced child
labor. Because of the Uzbek government’s
reluctance to allow formal outside supervision of the cotton harvest, it is
impossible to know with certainty the current state of child labor in the
country. Much of the available information relies on the observations of human
rights defenders in Uzbekistan. According to the most recent US
Department of Labor report, 2011
Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, children in Uzbekistan are “engaged
in the worst form of child labor” during the cotton harvest. In 2011 there were
more young students allowed to stay in school rather than participate in the
harvest overall. However, the report cites some incidences where young children
were still required to pick cotton in order to reach a required quota. Generally
it appeared that older children were sent to harvest cotton before younger
children, but there were incidents reported where children as young as ten were
forced into the fields.
