India's culture has created a disregard for compulsory educa
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
In India's current state, they will become adults who cannot do the task as efficiently as a child can and will eventually be replaced by a younger child worker. If compulsory education existed, then India will need to create better wages and conditions for everyone so there will be no need for children to work to help out their families. Therefore, the skills that they are learning cannot be used later in life anyway. India, as it exists today, lives in a cycle that will never end unless something is changed in either their education system or their education policies. However, there are also thirty five million people without jobs, (world fact book). However, in the case of Uttar, he fought to stay in school; thus all of his children graduated college. This is not the case for all children in India. According to Weiner (1991; 5) education has been a "means of maintaining differentiations among social classes," and also that too much education would cause disorder in the existing class system. Therefore, it is more economical for parents to send their children to work instead of school. Thus there will never be a "good" time to ban child labor. 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. However, it does not appear that India is willing to set aside centuries of customs and beliefs to help a struggling illiterate lower class, which is close to or already poverty stricken, survive. It is also believed that there are no mistakes as to which class you are born. Many of these unemployed have lost their jobs to children because their industry finds it cheaper and more efficient to employ children or they are young adults who can no longer do the job they themselves were taught as a child.
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