On Monday December 21, the Minister of Labor, Migration and Employment, Ms. Shirin Amonzoda, visited the female mardikorbozor (mardikorbozor literally translates as “worker market”) in Bokhtar, the capital of Khatlon province in southern Tajikistan.
During a meeting with female mardikor, the minister noted that they should take training courses to improve their qualifications.
Amonzoda called on them to take training courses to be a pastry chef, a weaver, a seamstress, a cook, or a hairdresser in order to get a permanent job, according to the press center of the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment (MoLME).
Free training courses will be organized for female laborers by the Khatlon Agency for Labor and Employment.
The mardikorbozor in Bokhtar is the only laborer market in Tajikistan, where women can tout for work.
The Bokhtar female laborer market appeared about eight years ago. According to some sources, at the beginning, only around 20 to 30 women would muster. The number has reportedly grown sharply in the past year or so, to around 100.
The majority of female mardikor are the abandoned wives of men who have gone abroad for work, or divorcees with children.
People looking for female hands for hire turn up early. Anybody who goes to the mardikor bazaar after five in the morning has no certainty of getting a job.
The women are ready to carry bricks, build sheds, wash dishes or dig the fields for around 22-33 somonis (equivalent to 2.00 or 3.00 U.S. dollars) per day.
In 2019, reporters of Asia-Plus made a report from the Bokhtar female mardikorbozor.
According to official data, the current number of unemployed people in the country is more than 53,000.
