Muhammad Yunus- Grameen

Last time I went to landmark hubby picked up this book on the grameen bank for me to read because he knew i always wanted to do something in this life which would help the less fortunate. The autobiographical work by the Nobel Peace Prize 2006 Muhammud Yunus, it describes how the now world famous NGO bank came about which has been replicated in more than 60 developing countries.


The book was very insightful and an eye opener for me as to how the basic human behaviour and its motivation is the key to successfully running and actually helping these people. The ancedote Yunus states about a woman who worked all day to make 50 paise for feeding her kids during the aftermath of drought that hit Bangla Desh in the 1970s is so touching. I am sure many of us see so many such things around us all day- bus stands, railway stations, and even in traffic signals but such new innovatives ideas are not born.....because we are more interested in getting rid of the dirty people who are touching the cars and wind shields than think as to what has brought upon this situation.

The most unbelievable part is how when they actually collected data on how much money was needed by these people to corner more of the profit from their work which was taken away by the middlemen, worked out to as little as Rs 55 to make the 50-60 odd villagers self sustaining. Since the starting point in their lives was zero, nobody including the govt banks didnt give them loans. The basic premise of all economic theories start with the assumption that there is a certain level of endowment which individuals are born with and bartering this gives rise to trade and welfare maximisation. But here are people in developing world where the life starts at zero or negative endowments if there is a inherited loan, making all the so called economic theories worthless in a jiffy.

But then how many of us question it? We think of blaming someone or the other and if no one else then destiny. But then what are governments and societies for?

The best part of the book was the lesson it gives us on how this lowest rung of the society is bestowed with huge self respect, dignity of labour and above all integrity. This lady who didnt have money to purchase raw materials for making basket and selling when given a loan to do it makes a life out of it and makes the persons and people who had faith in her proud and more importantly profitable.