FAST FASHION: UZBEKISTAN
One of the largest cotton exporters include Uzbekistan, and its government uses abusive child labor to produce the cotton. The cotton industry in Uzbekistan is state-controlled, and forces both adults and children to pick cotton, which is often an extremely dangerous job, especially with the given working conditions where the workers are exposed to unknown chemicals in the fields, lack of safe drinking water, and unsanitary housing. Uzbekistan’s government went as far as to close down schools during harvesting season in order for kids to work in the mills instead of receiving an education. Many kids are being stripped from their rights to an education, so that they would fill Uzbekistan’s pockets.
Even recently, in 2015 and 2016, Uzbekistan forced over a million people (students, teachers, doctors, nurses, employees of government agencies and private businesses) to work in the cotton fields, “against their will and under threat of penalty, especially losing their jobs”.
“The government of Uzbekistan harasses, detains, and exiles Uzbek citizens who call for recognition of human rights, violating their human rights and denying freedoms of speech and the press”
The Uzbek government is feeding the cycle of poverty by stripping away children’s rights to education and threatening to take away people’s jobs. This leaves the Uzbekistan’s future generation condemned to a destructive economic, social, and political environment.
