We are also looking at large families. In our slum, for instance, three to five children is the norm. That's a lot of mouths for the mother to feed on such a low income. So finally she has to fall back on the child bringing in extra money. And where a mother really has no choice at all about whether she can keep her child in school or whether she can put the child into work, it's always the latter choice that she has to make.
Child labour is always self-defeating.
We have found that poverty creates child labour - but child labour also creates poverty. It's a vicious circle. If a child is not able to study and train herself, is not able to look at a future for herself as a responsible and responsive citizen, then we are perpetuating the whole cycle of poverty, and she will never be able to get out of the slum. Rich people often scoff at poor people for being 'fatalistic', but if there seems to be no way out of your poverty, then accepting your situation is actually a logical and practical response. It stops you wasting energy and becoming bitter after years of being pointlessly optimistic.