The deputy hokim for family and women’s affairs of Sariosiyo district, Surkhandarya region, Dilfuza Tashmatova, has been recorded forcing a “women’s activist” – one of seven employees of the mahalla (local neigbohood council) to pick cotton and additionally find five to ten pickers each. Independent Uzbek media outlet Kun.uz published a video recording in which the deputy hokim berates the employees, calling them “unscrupulous” and “shameless”.
According to Tashmatova, each “women’s activist” must bring five to ten people (depending on the district) to the fields, a total of 150 workers. “Why is there still no one? Are you even a woman? Shameless! Unscrupulous! If you don’t want to work, then leave!”, she shouted while standing in a cotton field.
She insisted that the employees “strip the fields bare” and announced that the local hokim himself would arrive to oversee the process. “Tomorrow, 150 people should work the field until nothing is left. We need more people to achieve this,” she said.
Tashmatova also threatened those who refused: “Anyone who who cannot fulfill the assignment can write a resignation and leave without excuses. But if you stay, you must work.”
According to the data published by the United States Department of Agriculture, approximately 70% of cotton in Uzbekistan is harvested by hand, while 30% is picked using machines. This marks a significant shift from previous years when manual labor accounted for up to 80% of the harvest. Uzbek Forum reported that Uzbekistan has faced a shortage of cotton pickers over the past two cotton seasons.
Role of mahalla in the recruitment of cotton pickers
The institution of the mahalla is described in presidential decree as a self-governing body of citizens, whose management structure is the so-called “mahalla’s seven.” It consists of a mahalla chairman, an assistant hokim, a youth leader, a women’s activist, a prevention inspector, a social worker and a tax inspector, whose responsibilities and tasks are defined by presidential decree.
The tasks of mahalla employees include ensuring the improvement of the mahalla, “promoting national values”, “preserving a healthy social and spiritual atmosphere” and other organizational and advisory activities aimed at “solving the problems of the population at the primary level”. One of the tasks of the mahalla is the compilation of documents of those receiving social assistance and the allocation of welfare and child allowances to residents. This gives mahallas considerable leverage in the recruitment of pickers.
Among the tasks listed in the decree, nothing indicates that mahalla employees should be involved in the organization of cotton pickers. Nonetheless, mahalla employees are traditionally responsible for recruiting cotton pickers among low-income and unemployed villagers in their communities.
During the 2024 cotton harvest, mahalla staff had to regularly report to hokims on the number of cotton pickers they had recruited and were subjected to enormous pressure due to the shortage of pickers.
After this incident was widely reported, the Ministry of Poverty Reduction & Employment announced that Dilfuza Tashmatova was fined 20.6 million UZS ($1,650) under Article 51 of the Administrative Code on Coercion to Labor.
