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> I would blame it on people choosing to have children they can't necessarily support.

It's not like that they perceive to have a choice: If one lives from day to day (or here harvest to harvest) and has never heard of pensions nor any chance to ever receive one, children are the only security one has for old age.

In all likelihood, they also don't have access to education or birth control.

Actually, they have children to support themselves.

Without mechanization, it becomes increasingly harder to support yourself without relatives to take care of you after you retire.

There is a delay between rising living standards, education and number of children finally decreasing. It's unrealistic to expect things to happen much faster for them than it happened for everybody else.