“Cotton brought no benefit to our nation, caused nothing but sufferings” – Shavkat Mirziyoyev

At a meeting with scientists, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed his opinion about the cessation of students’ compulsory involvement in cotton harvesting and other types of forced labor, Kun.uz correspondent reports.

“What have we been doing for 20-30 years? Each year for six months we were engaged in cotton and grain production. How is it possible to study in such a condition? At those times, when we were students ourselves, we would be taken away to harvest cotton on September 1 and would return on December 28. That’s how we used to study. 

Pupils were also involved in the cotton production and harvest process for up to two months. What can schoolchildren learn studying under such condition? Teachers, after coming from cotton harvest, lived with a thought that this would surely happen again next year,” the head of state said at a meeting held at the State Committee for Geology and Mineral Resources. The President emphasized that in recent years such remnants of the past era were eliminated.

“In two years we managed to break the system that stood for 100 years. Today, not a single student is taken to cotton fields. Undoubtedly, it was hard, but we were able to make it possible. Who needs cotton? Who is interested in it? It brought no benefit to our nation, caused nothing but sufferings, such as the “Cotton Case” and others.

Why am I telling you this? Because, the challenges we face need to be addressed and resolved by ourselves. Nobody else will be doing anything to help us in that,” Kun.uz correspondent quoted Shavkat Mirziyoyev as saying.