Whilst in earlier chapters poverty has been seen as one of the key causes of child labour and the economic, and specifically competitive and cost pressures described, the labour inspector is confronted with the practical consequences....He or she sees the poverty, the economic powerlessness... and the lack of any trade union presence in many sectors, and...is acutely aware of the economic consequences for the family of removing children from work in certain circumstances. It is rather different from prosecuting a large corporation.

There is in fact the vicious circle of underdevelopment and child labour. Economic underdevelopment is associated with low productivity which in turn results in low living standards...low incomes and inadequacies in food, education, training, housing, hygiene, sanitation and healthcare. These conditions reduce the capacity to work leading to fatigue, premature ageing, accidents, disease, absenteeism and consequently reduced income, indebtedness and increased poverty.

There is then increasing pressure for the employment of children which results in low school attendance rates, low levels of general and vocational education, low wages....The consequential low capacity to work and to consume completes the circle of economic underdevelopment.

This is the cycle that inspectors see, not as economic theory, but in the unenviable lives of real people. And inspectors are being asked to intervene at one point only in the circle without being able to influence the prior conditions or ameliorate the consequential damage.

...Action against child labour may also encounter obstacles in the form of existing cultural standards. There may for instance be a certain fatalism which questions the need to take action against the exploitation of children and questions the values, ideology or religion inspiring such measures. Abolishing such practices may be seen as a luxury reserved for those to whom life offers other alternatives than merely submitting to the fate of a social category, an ethnic class, a caste or a religious group. Ethically child labour may not be seen as an alarming phenomenon....Being idle and a social parasite are causes of misconduct and delinquency and are contrary to the values of solidarity within the community. Parents may themselves have worked from a very young age...and may see this as part of a tradition ....They may have no experience of families which escaped this economic constraint. Traditionally too it may have been that only some of the children were able to go to school and to succeed....

Society may see work by children as a normal stage in the process of growing up and working young has been seen as the best form of education in community life. They may be seen as both gaining experience of the power and authority which they have to respect and also of companionship and solidarity between equals....