Posted on October 19, 2014
According to the Coordination Council on Child Labour, on 18 September in the country with the expert assistance of the International Labour Organisation to conduct national monitoring of child labor in the cotton industry.
Currently, various regions of the country there are 8 regional monitoring teams, consisting of representatives of the Federation of Trade Unions, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the Chamber of Commerce.
For the first time in the monitoring process involved representatives of regional samoinitsiativnyh NGOs such as the Association of Teachers ‘Murabba’ Association on reproductive health, social support for adolescents Center “Lobar” Information and Educational Center of Youth “Istiqbolli avlod” and others.
Monitoring is conducted on the methodology and the use of the software the International Labour Organization. On-site is based on a randomized sample areas, the results of visits by field coordinators provide daily operational information. Volunteers fr om among university students produce a weekly application of encoded information into the database. On October 15 of this year, experts fr om regional monitoring groups completed a total of about 30 thousand km, visited 124 rural districts. During the visits carried out 548 site visits of potential risks, including 247 visits to the professional colleges and academic lyceums and 301 visit farms.
According to the regional monitoring teams, the average percentage of attendance of students of academic lyceums and professional colleges in the sel ected segment is 89%.
For students in schools, academic lyceums and professional colleges for the entire period the cotton harvest is organized work of sports sections, circles deeper study of academic disciplines, foreign languages, functioning societies in applied arts, crafts, science.
All educational institutions are posted ads on the inadmissibility of attracting students to pick cotton under the age of 18 years.
Throughout the heads of educational institutions to issue a warning prosecutors and khokimiyats of their personal responsibility for compliance with the legislation against child labor. There is a written commitment of parents that their children will not be involved in the cotton harvest.
On separate occasions revealed the presence of children in the cotton fields of regional groups monitoring drawn up removal of children, and with the help of labor inspections instituted the case on administrative responsibility.
The data obtained fr om the territorial monitoring groups also suggest that head of the farm to create appropriate conditions for work and leisure cotton pickers. On the field is delivered hot meals and clean drinking water. Regularly conducted payment for the harvested cotton.
The International Labour Organization and provides significant advice and expertise in the national monitoring. To date, with a mission to assist in the monitoring of Andijan, Jizzakh, Samarkand, Syrdarya, Tashkent and Ferghana regions of Uzbekistan visited the ILO A.Hauzen, E.Betullaev, H.Talliga, V.Husberg, S.Glovatskas, which confirmed a high level of organization of work on the monitoring system and the lack of involvement of minors in the cotton harvest.
Interest in the national monitoring has shown, and the International Trade Union Confederation, whose representative A.Leppik October 8 visited schools secondary vocational education Syrdarya region, wh ere he got acquainted with the educational process, has ascertained the high attendance of pupils, the absence of coercion for the cotton harvest.
In addition, representatives of the World Bank in September-October this year to visit the area of observation of Samarkand, Bukhara regions and areas of the Fergana Valley, wh ere Bank projects are being implemented.
According to Acting The heads of the World Bank in Uzbekistan N.Nakvi their representatives visited the field and did not see child labor. They made sure that everything goes in the same vein, as noted in the report of the ILO mission in 2013. All visited farms had contracts with cotton pickers and copies of passports. The youngest collector was 19 years old. It is clear that the work was carried out by the Government and its results were visible. Thus, representatives of the World Bank also have not seen evidence of systemic involvement of children in cotton harvesting, which, in their opinion, the related statements of the ILO over the past year.
