Fergana province is no exception

One of our sources reports that university students, high school students and schoolchildren in and around Marghilon city (Fergana province) have in fact been sent out to pick cotton.  Some outlets had earlier reported that the provincial leadership was sticking to its promise not to mobilize children.  Our source wrote on October 1:

Yesterday the students of Fergana state university were sent out to the cotton. The provincial leadership supplied the buses and other transportation, as well as bedding and cots. A week ago the college [high school] students in the [name withheld] district were sent out, but they aren't remaining in the fields over night. These students walk out to the fields and back every day. A day or two after the high school students went out, the elementary school students also started to go out to the fields in the morning and come back in the evening.

Including Tashkent province (more on that later), that makes eight of twelve provinces reporting children in the fields so far. The peak of the harvest, mind you, is a week or two away.