Children Risk Lives for Only One Somoni

When we enter Qurghon-teppa market the first things we see are small children and teenagers carrying heavy bags or carts with heavy goods or groceries. These children earn a penny, but if they get sick or injured at the market they would spend 1000 somoni on medical treatment.

Mahmud, a 10 years old child, has been working at Qurghon-teppa market for 2 years. He works the whole year there, on cold and hot days. His working day consist of 13 hours. His actual weight is 35-36 kilos, but every day he has to lift up bags of 20 kilos. He says his arms and feet are aching terribly every night. For carrying 1 bag Mahmud gets only 1-2 somoni.

One day a horrible situation happened to Mahmud. Two elder boys at the gates of the market saw that Mahmud made 5 somoni for carrying 4 bags. They snuck up on him in a narrow street, bit him and took all his money. The poor child did not know how to get back that money, because it was late and too dark to go back to the market. When he came home his mother asked for money, but Mahmud had nothing. His mother became frustrated and punished her son for being careless with money. At such an age Mahmud should be going to school, studying different subjects and having fun with peers, but instead of this he is obliged to work the whole day at the market. His father went to Russia and does not send any money. At home there are 3 more kids in addition to him. Mahmud is earning money to feed his sisters and mother.

Majidullo Miraliev has been working at the children’s hospital for many years. As he says, there are thousands of kids in our market working and trying to earn some money. I believe children under the age of 17 should be strictly forbidden from doing such hard work. In Mahmud’s age his body is young and is beginning to develop. If a child does hard work like Mahmud at such an age, his bones and skeleton will form in a wrong way. A police officer at Qurghon-teppa market, Valijon, pointed out one very important thing: every child who enters crowded places such as the market can easily ruin his/her life. The most dangerous things which can happen to such children is that either they will become robbers, or make their health worse, which will have a bad affect in the future.

Valijon told me one thing which I will never forget. Last spring he was walking through trade lines and checking the procedure of trade between customers and sellers. One nice looking man bought 20 kilos of potatoes. A skinny child of age 8-9 came up to that man and asked if he wants him to carry it. The man gave the boy 2 somoni for carrying 20 kilos of potatoes. The boy lifted the bag with an exhausted face. He did not even walk 2 meters and fell on the ground without any sign of life. When doctors came they said that boy died from hepatorrhexis (rupture of the liver). Such situations occur at the markets routinely. Small children and teenagers come to the market to earn money, but can easily ruin their lives or get injured or even die. And they all go through these tortures only for 1 somoni.