PUNE, 21 November 2007 — Bangladesh will emerge as poverty and beggar-free country by 2030, says Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammed Yunus, who is also founder of Grameen Bank.
Yunus was speaking at a function organized by Sakal group of newspaper which conferred on him with the “Person of the Year” award, a citation and cash of Indian Rupees 10 lakhs Saturday by Nationalist Congress Party President and federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, whose family owns the newspaper group.
Yunus said, “With poverty declining by two percent every year in Bangladesh, it would further be reduced to half by 2015 and by 2030 the country will emerge out as a poverty and beggar free country.” Throwing a gauntlet at Maharashtra state, Yunus challenged the state to compete with Bangladesh to have a poverty-free place, and said that like Bangladesh, Maharashtra can actually enter the race for a poverty-free state by 2030. “I would love to have a competition between Bangladesh and India’s most progressive state Maharashtra in rural development,” Yunus said.
Urging to explore creativity and develop leadership, Yunus said that humans are wonderful creations with enormous capacity. Unfortunately, they die without unwrapping the wonderful gift they are born with.
“We have created a society around us that doesn’t allow individuals to explore capacity of creativity. In such a scenario good leadership plays an important role. It should create an environment for society to grow and explore the inner power.”
He said he was waiting for a day to see Bangladesh poverty and beggar-free. “Not a single man begging on the street and no one exploiting the poor. This is my dream.” Yunus further said then he “would build a Poverty Museum in Bangladesh where the next generation would have the glimpses of a once poverty-ridden country. On the day poverty is completely eradicated from my country, I will run a full page advertisement announcing $1 million prize for those who find one poor person in Bangladesh.”
Yunus said and added that a new program had been launched four years ago for beggars.
“What we did were desperate actions after Bangladesh was born in 1971 and was referred to as a basket case. We began because we were frustrated. And we never gave up,” Yunus said. Bangladesh, he said, is at the forefront of global warming and ecological imbalances due to man-made problems created all over the world. “It is up to us whether we live as guests or force the nature to become aggressive,” he said.
Asked about the mantra for success, Dr. Yunus said “Greatness is often measured by kindness; education and intellect by modesty. To be a winner, you have to be an innovator and a visionary. It is healthcare and technology that is demanding attention along with education. Once these fall in place, a nation could work in any circumstances,” he said.
Speaking about the Nobel Prize to him, Yunus said that he did not win the Nobel Prize alone. “The 7.5 million Bangladeshi borrowers of Grameen Bank with maximum women borrowers are the real winners of the prize. “You may not realize it, but in Bangladesh the hardworking people don’t even have leaders to support them. Even the self-help group movement and rural banking, started about three decades back that won me a Nobel prize, is not being taken seriously, he lamented.
“They say, more secured the income, more credit you get. They search for rich persons and who could know everything about banking business and have guarantors. Grameen Bank looks for persons having no guarantee, no security and the poorest person of all and has over 7.5 million borrowers, mostly women. It is owned by these people and not by any individual or government, Yunus explained and said that his bank stands on a mandate that is exactly opposite to the conventional banking.
The huge audience was spell bound when Dr. Yunus said that the staff of his bank has been trained to look for such women borrowers who don’t want loan, are completely unaware of the banking system and in case agree for loan, want it to be given tot heir husbands.
“This is not her voice, it is history that speaks. We target such women who live in a state of fear and a sense of rejection given by the society. Our motto is to build the future,” Yunus said.
“The people of Bangladesh are very enterprising, we have several countries wanting to take a cue from us, but sadly the same is not recognized in our country,” Dr. Yunus said and said that thinking differently makes a difference. He thanked and expressed gratitude toward the government of India and its people for the concern it showed for the cyclone-hit people of his country.
