Prof. Mohammed Yunus, winner of the Noble peace Prize

Noble Prize committee has decided to award Noble peace Prize to an economist Prof. Mohammed Yunus, 66, a native of Bangladesh. It has been decided to award this prize collectively to Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen bank set up by him. This honour is considered to be the highest prize in the world. This honour will be given on December10, in Oslo. There were well contested 191 entries for Noble prize but it was decided to give this prize to Prof. Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen bank established by him.

Undoubtedly, there had been a sow of people in the world, who talked about the poor, the farmers & the labourers. Even today, sometimes we hear about the donors, who seem to donate to a country for the welfare of the poor, the exploited in the society, the labourers & the deprived. But in this age, everywhere there is might is right, the rich & the group with muscle power are getting applause, selfishness is above selfless service & the society is playing in the hands of the rich. Undoubtedly, Prof. Mohammad Yunus seems to be the only economist in the world, who at a critical time has deeply thought of the exploited, the deprived, the helpless, the poor, the beggars, the tillers & the destitute & thought of to make them stand on their feet to earn their living.

From United Nations Organisation to Panchayat level, there seems to be a debate about the efforts to bring peace in the world. Sometimes there is a debate to eradicate poverty, sometimes about disarmament & sometimes there seems to be a unity of the nations of the world against terrorism. Sometimes there is a discussion to spread education to every home. Sometimes there are arguments on the Islamic religious orders. Sometimes people unite for the sake of religions. But in spite of these efforts, the results are not desirable. The world is heading towards anarchy. It seems that the Disarmament is only on papers. There seems a race for accumulation of nuclear weapons. Day by day, terrorism is spreading like a wild fire. Poverty is proving a big hurdle in spreading education. The Islamic religious leaders are becoming a mockery. The false is defeating the truth. The work of making self-dependent & providing employment to these poor, helpless & beggars, undertaken by Prof. M. Yunus is unmatchable, especially in such adverse circumstances in the world.

Prof. Yunus himself told that as a professor, he used to teach economics, he felt very sorry to think over, how he could succeed in bringing the principles of economics for the welfare of the people who were below poverty line? How to give employment to the poor people? With a mental pain & a motive he went to a bank manager & pleaded the case of the poor people for giving them bank loan to make them self dependent. The bank manager gave a blank reply as there is a great risk for the loan of a poor man to be returned, so bank can't give loan to the poor man. A poor man or a beggar has no person who can stand surety for him. He has nothing to pawn against his loan- neither land nor gold. Now a question arises- Has this two third population of the world society no right to make progress? Does their destiny not allow them for two meals a day or to send their child to a school or to clad themselves or to give medicines to their ailing family members? Is it only because of the fact that this faction of society is exploited, poor & helpless & there is no man to help them & to stand surety for them?

During these painful circumstances Prof. Yunus thought that this is the major part of the population, the labourer group, that really deserves to get loan & needs to be self dependent & employed. Prof. Yunus took a right decision that the best way to establish peace in the world & to educate the people is to provide employment to the common man specially the poor. Considering this aim of his, he gave the first loan in his life, from his pocket to a woman of the village Zobra living near Chit gong University ( Bangladesh) where he was professor. That woman prepared bamboo furniture from this loan amount, selling this furniture, she returned the loan & earned a profit of 5 Bangladeshi Takkas or 0.2 US $. After that he gave loan to 42 persons in a village & so went on. Then in 1976, Prof. Yunus set up a Grameen bank. The aim of this bank was to give loan to the poor especially to the poor women who want to do their own profession. This bank provides loans of small amounts that is from Rs. One Thousand to Rs. Ten Thousand. These loans are given without any well known bank formalities & other harassments. The workers themselves go from door to door to give these loans.

According to statistics available in May 2006, the number of villages that have been provided services by this bank is 71371. It has 2226 branches & 66 lacs persons have got loan from this bank & have started their own work. Surprisingly, the bank was started to treat both the sexes equally for giving of loans but the number of women who have availed the services of the bank is 98%. By his exemplary efforts, Prof. Yunus has proved that even the poorest can be trusted upon each & every poor person living in this world has full rights to make progress in his or her life. By his astonishing experiment, he has proved that however a man may be poor, even a beggar, if helped with money, he can progress in his life. He can change his lines of destiny. He rightly understood this principle of economics that without initial investment, you can't earn more capital as profit.

Mohammad Yunus was born in a Muslim family on June 28, 1940 at Chitgaon. Even being a Muslim, he ignored the Islamic traditions of loan & interest. He advanced with his mission- 'Have Occupation & Eradicate Poverty' to such an extent that the biggest award of the world, such as Noble Prize got honour to honour him. This dignity of Prof. Yunus is an honour to all the Muslims of the world along with the economists, & the Bangladeshi people as well as honour of the poor peoples of the world. This award forces the so called leaders of the world to think that the only way to establish peace in the world, to eradicate poverty & to give education to the poor people is to give them employment. It is a matter of great surprise that the cent percent children of the people who got loan from the Grameen bank are going to school today. That's why that today somewhere, Prof. Yunus is being equated with God & somewhere called the Banker of the Poor people.