Towards Creating a Poverty Free World: Mohammad Yunus | Essay | English Notes

The essay “Towards creating a Poverty-Free World” is written by ‘Mohammad Yunus'. He is an economist, and banker from Bangladesh. He gave the idea of microcredit and microfinance. He set up Grameen bank to give loans to the poor who were not helped by banks.

The essay traces the beginning of Grameen Bank. Yunus argues that the poor need loans so they can bring about change in their own lives by self-employment. He questions the wisdom of traditional banks which did not give loans to the poor. He believes that the poor already have the skills to Survive, they only need a little help in the form of working capital to bring changes in their lives.

The author says that he lost faith in economic theories after seeing the famine in Bangladesh. He felt that there was a big gap between the reality of the poor and hungry people and the economic theories. He visited the poor people in the village Jobra. He was shocked to see the suffering of the people because of money. They got that money by selling their goods to the lender at the price fixed by him.

The author made a list of the needy and calculated that forty-two persons needed a total of 27 dollars as working capital.

The banks were not giving Loans. The bank manager told the author that poor people were not able to pay back their loans.

The author lent the money to people on his list to help them. They were happy. He thought that he would get money for them on a permanent basis. With this thing in mind, he stood surety to get a loan for the poor. People paid back their loans without any problem. However, the stance of the bank did not change.

The author tried the scheme for two villages, after that village to village and touched the number of hundred. At this stage, he thought of creating a difference for the poor. Hence, the concept of Grameen Bank came. In twenty years after the setting up of Grameen bank in 1983, the bank crossed the US $2 Billion mark in cumulative Loans.

It is considered that creating employment is the only way to end unemployment and poverty. Stress is given on the wage-employment. Young people should be trained for this. If someone cannot get an employer, the real problem begins. He says that our ancestors did not go in search of an employer, they became the master of their own destiny. They were self-employed. Self-employment can put an end to poverty. An occupation like weaving, to husk rice, rais cows, or peddling rickshaws can bring money.

The author encourages the idea of self-employment than wage employment. According to him, work does not save people, but capital is linked to work. The poor cannot retain the return of their labor. They work for others who control the capital. This is the reason for unemployment and poverty which can be ended with self-employment.

Gagandeep Kaur Chahal

(Assistant Professor English)