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The puzzle of manual harvest in Uzbekistan: economics, status and labour in the Khrushchev era

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  • Shoshana Keller

Abstract

Uzbekistan has attracted international criticism for its use of child labour, defined as labour performed by youth under the Soviet legal limit of 16, to harvest cotton by hand. This article argues that manual labour, mostly performed by low-status children and women, became entrenched in Central Asian agriculture during the 1950s, and investigates the possible reasons for its persistence in the face of global trends to the contrary. The timing is a puzzle, because the 1950s were when mechanization of agriculture became a global development goal. The USSR participated in the mechanization trend. To understand better the roots of rural labour patterns in the Khrushchev period, we must consider how economic incentives and disincentives, gender relations, demographics, and state policy worked together.

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  • Shoshana Keller, 2015. "The puzzle of manual harvest in Uzbekistan: economics, status and labour in the Khrushchev era," Central Asian Survey, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 296-309, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ccasxx:v:34:y:2015:i:3:p:296-309
    DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2015.1022037
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    Cited by:

    1. Studenna-Skrukwa Marta, 2023. "The One that Wasn’t: Child and Youth Labour in the Post-Stalin Era in the Soviet Union," Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, Sciendo, vol. 41(2), pages 103-126, December.

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