Dushanbe (AsiaNews) Tajik kids miss about 380 school hours to pick cotton, Russian News Agency Itar-Tass said yesterday citing a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In spite of Tajikistan's laws against child labour, 40% of cotton is picked by school-age children. About 70% of parents report that cotton harvesting has a bad effect on the health of their children.
Working in the fields also has detrimental effects on their education. According to Frédéric Chenais, IOM's chief in Tajikistan, children miss up to a third of their classes for meagre wages. Speaking at a press conference in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe he said that "for four or five months of work the kids are paid less than 20 US dollars."
He adds that because 630,000 adult Tajiks go abroad, mostly to Russia, seeking seasonal work, employing children is an easy solution to the resulting labour shortages. Moreover, experts point out that the recent civil war killed about 50,000 people further reducing the labour force.