Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank have been jointly awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Committe has done something unusual…taking notice of the pioneering work being done at the grassroots level to promote entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty.
Second, the women are the greatest beneficiaries. “Mr Yunus set up the bank in 1976 with just $27 from his own pocket. Thirty years on, the bank has 6.6 million borrowers, of which 97% are women, according to the Grameen website, says the BBC.
“Mr Yunus and the bank were being honoured ‘for their efforts to create economic and social development from below’, said the Nobel committee chairman, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, in Oslo.
“Mjoes said the bank’s work in creating opportunities for large numbers of people to get out of poverty created the conditions for sustainable peace.”
” ‘Development such as this is useful in human rights and democracy’, said Mr Mjoes.”
The Associated Press writer Beth Duff-Brown gives a first-hand account from Bangladesh: “Walking alongside rice paddies and water buffalo on the outskirts of Dhaka with Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus was like walking down the red carpet with a Hollywood movie star.
“Women in saris grabbed at the handsome man with thick gray hair, flirting and addressing him with ease. I was surprised, given we were in a conservative Muslim country where rural women typically take a backseat to men.
“But this man, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, had taught them to stand up to their husbands by giving them small loans that now put them in the driver’s seat…”
The World Bank site also procides interesting details about microcredit programme: “The microcredit movement was started in the early 1980s by the Grameen Bank. In the late 1980s, institutional credit providers mushroomed when many non-profit NGOs—recognizing the importance of stable income and capital accumulation in reducing poverty— started targeted savings and credit programs for income generating self-employment.
“During the past five years, the Grameen Bank disbursed about US$2.4 billion to nearly 2.3 million borrowers, while more than 495 NGOs have disbursed about US$4.3 billion to more than 3 million borrowers. Some of these NGOs provide not only money but also technical assistance in the form of skills training and marketing assistance.
“Microcredit programs target those without land or assets, and 90 percent of microcredit recipients are women. Loans are collateral-free, and usually have a maturity of 50 weeks with weekly repayments.
“Borrowers are part of a 15-20 person group that meets regularly Savings is an integral part of the program and financial transactions are recorded in individual passbooks in the presence of the entire group to enhance transparency and self-monitoring.”
One wonders why this programme has not been replicated in India, Pakistan and the neighbouring countries. Maybe the publicity generated by the awarding of Nobel prize could do the trick and help poverty-stricken people in these countries.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.