Lending to the poor and feeding the malnourished
I gave money to the people from my own pocket: Prof Muhammad Yunus
Update: 2015-09-05 06:51 GMT
Mysuru: “Money lenders giving tiny loans grabbed the lives and completely took over of the lives of people in Bangladesh. And, sadly people were totally dispossessed. That’s when I began to think how to protect my people from loan sharks and money lenders as the problem was very deep-rooted,” said the soft-spoken micro-credit pioneer, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus who revolutionised the concept of loans in Bangladesh, and has done the same in other parts of the world, where others have followed his path.
The Nobel Laureate who is in India for a seven-day visit from 31 Aug to 7 Sept was inaugurating the University of Mysore’s centenary lecture series and delivering the centenary lecture at the University on ‘Redesigning economics to redesign the world,’ at Crawford Hall on Friday.
On Grameen Bank, the Chairman of Yunus Centre and Founder of the Dhaka based bank said: “I thought, obviously I can’t solve the problem of the whole world, but I can solve the problem of a few people in the villages. And, I started by giving money to the people from my own pocket. They were shocked and surprised. They couldn’t believe this.”
“They thought I was the new money lender in the village. It soon became a sensation in the village because the word went around that this guy gives away money,” laughed the 2006 Nobel Laureate. “When I exhausted my resources, I went to the banks and asked for money. Banks responded saying that poor people are not credit-worthy. And, I asked them in turn how do they know that they are not credit-worthy. Finally, I offered myself as a guarantor and assured the banks that if nobody would pay, I would. Then also, they wouldn’t believe me.”
“The banks were so sure that this will never work. But as the time passed every single penny came back. Today, there are half a million borrowers. Last year Grameen Bank lent US$1.5 billion through 600 branches spread over Bangladesh,” he said.
He also spoke about his path-breaking health initiative for the malnourished children of his country. “So many children in Bangladesh cannot see properly at night time. When I asked the health experts they said it was because of night blindness. Shocked, I asked doctors whether it was a disease and they explained to me that it was because of malnutrition,” said the microcredit pioneer. “That is when I began to give poor children yoghurt and gradually their health improved. It is funny because watching this, even the rich people started eating yoghurt,” laughs the Grameen Bank founder.
“Today, in Bangladesh this phenomenon of night blindness has been completely eradicated,” he said. “Profit making is the driving force in today’s world, and money-making a value. But people should realise making other people happy is the most important value. People will realise that helping others is actually very intoxicating,” said Professor Yunus.