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Yunus Wants Grameen Banks in all SAARC Nations

By sachiv1, Section News
Posted on Mon Feb 12, 2007 at 04:48:18 AM EST

On his first visit to Kolkata after receiving the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Muhammad Yunus expressed his desire to introduce the concept of "grameen bank" all over the SAARC region. He is planning to approach the Indian government for its support to his initiative.

On the first day of his two-day visit, Yunus made it clear that he was determined to "introduce microfinancing not only in India, but also in other Asian countries". Touched by the reception that he received today, Yunus said: "I will need a car to take back all the flowers I received today. Although I have gone to several countries, the warm welcome in Kolkata has filled my heart." Bijoygarh College and Chattogram committee felicitated Md Yunus on his arrival to the city today.

Born in 1940 in Bangladesh's Chittagong district, Yunus is gifted with a benevolent mind. The tag of "poorest country" given to Bangladesh irks him immensely. He wants to change it to "the first country to get rid of poverty". Yunus can definitely claim that he has been able to achieve this for his motherland. The concept of microcredit has not only spread all across Bangladesh, but all over the world.

Sharing his initial experiences of introducing the "grameen bank" system, Yunus said: "We began giving credit to underprivileged women at Chittagong only on the basis of trust. We did not demand any security deposit or legal documents from them. This created a feeling of mutual trust between us, and the women returned the amount as soon as they could."

A total of 70 lakh women in Bangladesh have already benefitted from the grameen bank scheme, and according to Yunus, the owner of the "grameen bank" are these 70 lakh women. The board is also run by these women, which has 21,000 workers at present. Yunus wants to bring a sea change in the concept of banking by "making banks approach people instead of people approaching banks".

On his trip to Sweden, Yunus had taken along nine such underprivileged women with him. To his surprise, the women were not greatly fluttered after going to a foreign country and "nobody could distinguish them as farmers or animal caretakers". The success of these women fills Yunus's heart with pride. "Every human being is born with a unique feature or strength, but society does not allow everyone to realise his innate qualities. What I want to do is to make at least one person realise his worth so that later he himself can alter his destiny for the better," said Yunus with a beaming smile.

(Source-Indian Express,12/02/07)

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