Authorities deceived: Forced cotton picking of women confirmed in Surkhandarya

Earlier, reports emerged that Nigora Jumayeva, Deputy Governor of the Kumkurgan district of the Surkhandarya region and Head of the Department for family and women’s affairs, had forced women to participate in cotton picking. In response, the district administration claimed that the women had joined the harvest ’’voluntarily’’ and of their ’’own free will.’’ However, it has now been confirmed that the women were indeed subjected to forced labor.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction, it has been verified that Deputy Governor Nigora Jumayeva instructed female activists of the Family and Women’s Affairs Department in Kumkurgan district to recruit cotton pickers. As a result, she was fined under Article 51, part 1 of the Administrative Responsibility Code (Administrative coercion to labor). Under this article, any form of forced labor through administrative means carries a fine ranging from fifty to one hundred times the base calculation amount (from 20 million to 41 million soums).

An audio recording circulating on social networks revealed that the deputy governor demanded that each female activist bring at least two women with them to the cotton fields.

’’Tomorrow morning, starting from 7 o’clock, each activist must bring at least two women with her to the cotton fields. We will meet with the women from the city neighborhoods at 6:30 am. The bus will be there. By 6:30, everyone should already be heading to the cotton fields. Deputy Prime Minister Makhkamova is expected to arrive at 9:00 am, and by that time, we must have everything ready, cleaned up, and the pickers working in the fields.

Do not say, I could not come, I was busy. Deputy Prime Minister Makhkamova is coming; this is no joke. Everyone must take this seriously and act conscientiously. All of you should arrive early and organize the work as instructed. Everyone must be in the field by 7 am; don’t wander in late around 8,’’ Nigora Jumayeva said. 

The district administration, however, described the event as voluntary. According to the administration, on September 22 of this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairwoman of the Committee on family and women, Zulaykho Makhkamova, visited the Kumkurgan district to review the ongoing efforts aimed at ’’Ensuring women’s employment and turning the area into a region free from unemployment.’’ As part of the visit, an event titled ’’My labor – my pride’’ was organized at the ’’Munchoktepa Istiqboli’’ farming enterprise in the Munchoktepa neighborhood. Along with women activists, female cotton pickers also took part in the event. It was claimed that their participation was ’’voluntary.’’

’’The audio recording reflects that Jumayeva instructed neighborhood activists to responsibly organize the event and ensure that the volunteer women participating in the cotton harvest are present in the fields at the designated time. However, interpreting this instruction as forced labor is completely groundless,’’ the district administration commented at the time.