India has existed as a parliamentary democracy since its independence from Britain in 1947. One would assume that since India is a democracy, that they would have well developed compulsory education policies. However, compulsory education policies do not exist in India. India has been changing rapidly over the last decade, but has failed to do anything about education or the welfare of its children. As a result only sixty percent of its children attend school beyond grade five and the literacy rate among the adult's in India lies only slightly above fifty percent, according to the United Nation's Children Fund, (unicef.org). India's culture is the cause of India's total disregard of compulsory education which has created one of the largest child workforces in the world. Therefore, many of the children in India hold jobs as early as three years old. Many drop out of school early and many never attend school at all.
             Although India has been on a path towards modernization, they have not modernized in their way of thinking or in their set of beliefs. Weiner (1991; 55) describes this well with the case of Uttar Pradesh, (who has been India's Secretary of Labor), whose family were agricultural laborers and did not send their children to school. They did not send their children to school not because they were poor and needed their children to work but simply because it was not the custom for his father's family to send their children to school. The custom of not sending children to school was simply what Uttar's family did. His father was not sent to school; therefore he did not realize the need for his children to go to school. This is a big problem in India. India's government does not emphasize the need for children to be in school, thus children are sent to work and not always because the family needs financial support. They simply just do what their parents did. This custom is deep...