| Research Institute |
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The 40K Research Institute is one of 40K’s initiatives. Established in 2009, the Research Institute investigates the developmental issues facing the communities that 40K services. The Research Institute was created because 40K believes that research into, and analysis of, the issues that affect the communities that it services would greatly aid 40K in developing solutions to assist these and similar communities in the future. The current research initiative being undertaken by the Research Institute is an investigation into the lives of granite quarry workers in Bangalore, India. This is the community that the 40K Foundation, and its Indian partner, the Lovedale Foundation, will be servicing with our new bridging school.
Sami, whose son Annand will be attending 40K’s bridging school, hard at work in a granite quarry. The lives of these quarry workers raise a number of developmental issues that the 40K research team is investigating:
The 40K Research Institute is run by volunteers. There are currently 13 volunteer researchers who came from a variety of academic backgrounds. The 40K Research Institute has completed two initial reports:
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Poverty Mythbusters
| Overpopulation causes poverty: |
People always say that we have to bring the number of people on earth down to reduce poverty- this leads to practices like the ‘one child’ policy in China. But… 40K Home was once invited to inspect a rag-pickers community* outside Delhi (India’s capital city). In that community, couples commonly had 9 or 10 children each. Why? For starters, once the kids turn about 6, they are put to work by picking rubbish and earning just under $1/day. This means that if you have 9 or 10 kids, the family as a whole pulls in a bit of money. Secondly, because of the terrible hygiene in poverty-stricken areas, there is a good chance that a few kids will die before the age of 5. Lastly, with no social security benefits for old poor people in places like India, people have a lot of kids so that they can be looked after in their old age. This leads to a vicious cycle- the kids don’t attend school, and they can’t break out of that lifestyle. SO, if there wasn’t poverty, there wouldn’t be a need for massive families. Hence, reduce poverty, and you combat overpopulation. *A rag-pickers community is similar to slum, except much more depressing- it’s a community formed around a rubbish dump, and people spend their days picking through the rubbish looking for things like aluminium foil and blown light bulbs that they can sell to recycling companies. |