Conscientious consumers are credited with driving change in forced child labor practices inside one of the world's most repressive regimes: Uzbekistan.

But while progress has been made, the fight is far from over.

"Uzbekistan has one of the most atrocious human rights records of any nation in the world," said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia research for Human Rights Watch.  "It's longstanding President (Islam Karimov) has been in power for 23 years and he crushes dissent."

Hundreds of thousands of students in Uzbekistan are pulled from their classrooms every fall and ordered into the fields to pick cotton for little or no pay.

A mother was recorded on video saying that if she didn’t send her child to pick cotton, she faced a fine equivalent to two weeks pay.  Rights groups say students are also threatened with losing their seat in the classroom. FULL POST