Guest Thinkers — October 29, 2010

Modern Child Slavery

Unable to handle the pressure to pick more and more cotton, in October 2008, Umida Donisheva, a 17-year-old girl, hung herself from a tree on the edge of a cotton field.

bigthinkeditor

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“In October 2008, Umida Donisheva, a 17-year-old girl, hung herself from a tree on the edge of a cotton field. According to the brief report on an Uzbek Internet news site, Umida had been unable to handle the pressure coming from her teachers to pick more and more cotton. According to Joanna Ewart-James of Anti-Slavery International, what is happening in Uzbekistan is nothing short of ‘child slavery.’ Although Uzbekistan has since signed the United Nations convention against the worst forms of slavery and denies any wrongdoing, little has changed for children in rural areas, says Ewart-James.”

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