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Download PDF Nobel Laureate and Grameen Bank founder Prof Muhammad Yunus has criticised the existing international financial institutions for shutting out the world’s poor from receiving their credit.
While delivering the keynote address at the international conference to commemorate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Satyagraha’ form of political movement here yesterday, Prof Yunus also advocated the concept of social business to address socio-economic problems.
“Two-third of the world’s population do not have access to the financial services of these institutions. This is a form of financial apartheid,” he said.
Prof Yunus said the significance of his getting the Nobel Prize for Peace was the relation between peace and poverty. “Poverty is a threat to peace,” he said adding “it is impossible for us to think of peace when 60 percent of the world’s population lives in poverty.”
Referring to the menace of terrorism, he said, “we have to fight terrorism but not through military action, but by addressing its root cause, which is poverty.”
By giving collateral-free loan of over six billion dollars to seven million people in Bangladesh, 97 percent of whom are women, the Grameen Bank has proved that the poorest of the society is bankable and credit-worthy, Prof Yunus observed.
The Nobel laureate pointed out that 58 percent of Grameen Bank’s borrowers have risen above the poverty line after receiving loans and the bank has not taken any money from donors since 1995.
“Micro-credit,” he said, “has created a silent and non-violent revolution.”
The Grameen Bank has focused on women because loan given through them has made a “deeper impact” on their families and because women should have a greater role in decision-making in families, Prof Yunus said.
Bangladesh has made major strides in cutting down infant mortality rates, women’s empowerment and telecom sector and “we are now working on to bring information and communication technology,” he said adding “We are looking at India in this regard.”
The Nobel laureate chose the occasion to announce that Grameen Bank would be opening an office in Mumbai — the first in India — in the next few days.
Yunus noted that Gandhiji’s historical Satyagraha movement of peaceful and passive resistance has changed the history of not only the sub-continent but of the entire world adding that his messages are as important to the world today as ever.
Elaborating the idea of social business, he said that it should be based on no-loss and no-dividend principles and profit earned should be ploughed back into the business. Through social business, all social-economic problems and the problems of 60 percent of the global population living below poverty line can be addressed, he observed adding that the rich individuals and families of the world would find it attractive.
Yunus said that he was a firm advocate of developing Chittagong as a regional port and aviation hub to provide maritime and air links with Southeast Asia.
He also rooted for an international highway through Bangladesh connecting the Saarc countries with Asean nations like — Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
The Grameen Bank chief also proposed cooperation among the Saarc countries in harnessing the water resources of the South Asian region for hydro-electric power projects.
Earlier, inaugurating the two-day conference, Congress President and India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance chief Sonia Gandhi said Satyagraha movement has changed the course of history and is a completely new tool to bring about social and political changes and for mass mobilisation.
“The core of Gandhiji’s philosophy reverberates through the world more strongly today than ever before,” she said.
Pointing out that the end of the Cold War has not brought about peace to the extent desired, Sonia said the world today is faced with the problem of terrorism — religious, ethnic and political.
While the underlying causes behind terrorism have to be understood, it should not be rationalised or romanticised, she noted.
The Congress chief said Gandhiji, while espousing Satyagraha, never claimed to be saying something new nor did he say that this would provide answers to all problems. “The challenge before us is to creatively evolve Satyagraha to suit our times,” she added.
Referring to the weapons of mass destruction, Sonia said India was forced to acquire them after the failure to convince the world about the need for complete nuclear disarmament.
In his speech, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee commended Yunus’s idea of social business and said that it is akin to Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of justice in economic development.
Several Nobel laureates, heads of state and government, ministers, parliamentarians, leading academics, civil society leaders and Gandhian thinkers are taking part in the conference.
Themes of the conference include conflict resolution, peace-building, poverty-alleviation, disarmament, social development, empowerment and dialogues between peoples and cultures.
Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who symbolised anti-apartheid regime in South Africa along with Nelson Mandela, leading Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, Gandhi peace prize-winner from Sri Lanka AT Ariyaratne and Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter Ela Gandhi are among the participants in the conference.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will deliver the concluding address today and adopt a “Satyagraha Centenary Declaration.”
An exhibition on the life of Mahatma Gandhi and the progress of Satyagraha that started in South Africa is also being held on the occasion.
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