Child Labour in the Cotton Industry of Uzbekistan: A Sociological Study

Uzbekistan, with its enormous potential of natural resources like oil, natural gas, water, gold and minerals, has made it as one of the most potential investment countries in the globalized world after its separation from Soviet Union. The available natural resources have not been exploited yet by the state of Uzbekistan due to its lack of skilled manpower, sophisticated technology and marketization which could have sustained the ever growing population of the country if utilized properly. On the other hand agriculture which comprises around 40 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Uzbekistan has turned black and white from coloured in the Post-Soviet era due to the decline in the sophisticated technology and manpower put into place and practice by the Russians. And the cotton industry, which constitutes around 47 percent of the agricultural production of Uzbekistan, gives billions of dollars in annual return. Due to the downsizing of skilled manpower and technology the cotton cultivation which was earlier in the pre-Soviet era practised by machines is now done by hand and often with the use of school children. Uzbekistan- the fifth largest exporter and second largest producer of cotton in the world- mostly cultivates cotton by the dint of child labour- mainly school children. From the first week of September every year schools are closed down for two to three months and all the children and teachers, irrespective of age and gender, are ordered by the autocratic state administration to take part in cotton-picking. Daily quotas are assigned to everyone by the supervisors and farm directors and those who do not meet the set quotas are bound to face punishment. The forced labour of children by the state of Uzbekistan is unique in its dimension and magnitude in the sense that in the rest of the world there are reasons like poverty, illiteracy etc. responsible for child labour but in Uzbekistan it is completely state-controlled to meet the totalitarian interests. Though the magnitude of the problem has been expanding in that more and more children turn to be working children, the amount of attention that the problem receives from the government and various non-governmental agencies is not in tune with its size because the tender-aged school going boys and girls who are part of the problem are not in a position to present their case before the concerned authorities as the administration in itself is fully responsible for this inhuman institution of child labour in Uzbekistan. Thus, the traditional nature of the problem becomes a limiting factor for its solution. 7 Amidst the plethora of literature on working children, the present work on the same subject is distinguished by its extensiveness and holistic treatment. Not only that a considerable number of child labourers were interviewed but their employers and parents were also interviewed to make the study multidimensional in character. In-depth interviews of human rights activists, senior citizens, government officials and social workers were also taken into consideration to make the findings of the study more viable. The case studies at the end of the findings chapter help to provide a holistic picture of the problem. I am sure this work will provide a very valuable addition to the existing literature on child labour in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan, besides being useful to those directly working with such children

Structural Changes in Jammu and Kashmir Economy

The state of J&K is characterized by hilly topography and difficult terrian besides seasonal land locked ness of certain areas stretching even up to seven months a year. The geographical area of the state is about 13.90 million hectares, out of which about 17.41% that is, 2.42 million hectares have been surveyed and are under the reporting system. Ladakh division covering about 70% of the total geographical area, the state has only 0.62% of its area recorded in the revenue papers. Major part of the surface area of the state being mountainous is inhospitable for human habitation and nearly half of it is used for forestry. The state of J&K is one of the most under-developed states of the country. It has a backward agriculture and a meagre industrial base. The state is rich in natural resources and its labour force is very intelligent and hardworking. But, due to under utilization of natural resources and man power, substantial gains have not been achieved in the fields of economic development and upliftment of the people. What is more disappointing is the fact that the state is becoming more and more dependent on the imports of both agricultural and industrial commodities from other states of the country due to the absence of sound and scientific economic planning in the state. The agricultural productivity is extremely low because of inadequate supply of irrigation, high - yielding variety of seeds and fertilizers to the farmers

Chemoprofiling of Medicinal Plants and Value Addition of Their Principle Constituents through Synthetic Modifications

Natural products, the greatest treasures of nature, are continous and unending source of inspiration for mankind to haunt potentialy lead molecules for pharmaceutical industry. The search for these natural products in medicine dates back to 1550 BC, but the scientific period of this search is much more recent. Historically, plants were a folkloric source of medicinal agents and as modern medicine developed, numerous useful drugs were developed from lead compounds discovered from medicinal plants. Today, this strategy remains an essential route to new pharmaceuticals with multifaceted biological potential. The present investigation was undertaken to study, in particular, the bioprospection of historically relevant medicinal plant, Cotula anthemoides, and the value addition of its principal bioactive constituent, ursolic acid (UA), through rational structural modifications as potential anti-cancer agents. Cotula, the largest genus of flowering plants in Southern Hemisphere which belongs to family Asteraceae and tribe Anthemideae. It constitutes roughly about 80 species of plants generally known as “water buttons” or “button weeds”. Cotula anthemoides is a well-known member of this genus commonly known as ‘Babuna’ and locally as “Thulla bobul”. In traditional medicine, its roots were taken in Lesotho for colic and in South Africa it is a remedy for head and chest colds. Its extensive use in the world wide flu-epidemic of 1919 makes it an attactive target for future research. Cotula anthemoides plant material was collected from Kelar region of District Pulwama and its identification was assured in the Department of Plant Taxonomy, University of Kashmir. A specimen bearing Voucher Specimen No. KASH-710 was submitted to the same department. The aerial part of plant was dried, crushed and subjected to extraction by various organic solvents. Bioactivity guided extraction directed us to focus on methanolic extract. Owing to its potential cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity, methanolic extract was further subjected to column chromatography which resulted into the isolation of 11 individual constituents. Incisive spectral analysis enabled us to identify unambigously four known constituents (α-pinene, coumarin, ursolic acid, gibberlic acid A-3) and a new coumarin ester, 6-Methoxy-2-oxo-2Hchromene- 8-carboxylic acid methylester all reported for the first time from this plant. All the isolated constituents were reevaluated against a panel of human cancer cell lines for anticancer activity and against bacterial and fungal strains for anti-microbial activity. It was interesting to note that, among the five compounds screened, ursolic acid and 6-Methoxy-2-oxo-2H-chromene-8-carboxylic acid methylester exhibited potential anti-cancer activity against four cancer cell lines, THP-1 (leukaemia), A-549 (lung), PC-3 (Prostate) and HCT-15 (colon) and significant antifungal activity against two fungal strains, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum. Taking cue from the preceeding discussion and as part of our ongoing research program to synthsesize biocative molecules as anti-cancer agents, we aim to undertake a research program to design and structuraly modify the UA in order to fine tune its anti-cancer potential through click chemistry approach. Accordingly, a series of UA- triazolyl derivatives were designed and synthesized by employing Cu (I) catalyzed 1, 3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of propargylated-UA derivative with various aromatic azides. All the compounds were confimed by 1HNMR, 13C NMR, IR and ESI-MS analysis. In 1HNMR, cyclization of azides to form triazoles, was confirmed by resonance of H-5 of triazole ring in aromatic region as well as by the presence of other protons in aromatic region. The structure was further supported by the 13CNMR and DEPT, which showed all the expected carbon signals corresponding to triazole derivatives. All the UA-triazolyl derivatives were assayed for in vitro cytotoxicity against a panel of four human cancer cell lines including A-549 (lung), MCF-7 (breast), HCT-116 (colon), THP-1 (leukemia) and a normal human epithelial cell line, FR-2 using sulforhodamine-B assay. 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin-C in addition to UA were taken as reference standards. From the anticancer screening data, it was interesting to note that some of the compounds exhibited interresting anticancer activity. Compound 9c which contains the p-bromo substitution at aryl ring was found to be most promising compound with a 2-25 fold decrease in IC50 value. All the UA-triazolyl derivatives were also screened for antimicrobial activity against seven bacteria and two fungal strains. The results indicate that these compounds displayed a broad spectrum and variable degree of antibacterial and antifungal activity against the different tested strains. Compounds 9d, 9j and 9k were most promising antibacterial agents and compound 9b and 9i were found to be most promising antifungal compounds in this study