Yunus says 'Poverty is the creation of our system'

Mumbai, Feb 2 (UNI) Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus is of strong belief that poverty is created by the system ''we live in and certainly not by the poor people themselves''.

Delivering a lecture on 'Credit as human rights' here today, Prof Yunus, the Managing Director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for year 2006, said, ''Poor people are born just like flowers in the flowerpots and it is not the seeds we put in the flowerpots for the blooming of the flowers.'' Rather, it is the way by which we nurse the seeds to grow, he added.

Today, five per cent people living in our society own majority of land leaving the remaining people deprived of even basic needs. Why should the small percentage of people be allowed to enjoy all the luxuries of life, he asked.

It is why Grameen Bank has taken a resolve to turn all the poor households, including beggars and handicapped, being covered by it to rich ones by 2010, he informed. Our real worry lies in the problem how to eradicate poverty, he said.

The solution of poverty lies in changing the basic model of capitalism which was purely based on the profit-making business, he said. According to him, 'social business' can show the way to overcome the menace existing in the society. ''At Grameen Bank we believe that human beings are born with unlimited capacities and hence we want to tap it without thinking of making money out of them. In fact, the very principle of Grameen Bank is based on 'no dividend, no loss,'' he said. He gave a call to the India Inc to come forward to participate actively in the 'social business fund' as has been planned by the Grameen Bank.

Also, he deliberated on the creation of alternate stock market or social stock market in this connection. Informing about the activities being undertaken by Grameen Bank, he said ''In toto, we've got 15 wings and almost half of them are related to health-related issues like supply of safe drinking water to rural folks. Government may be pumping huge sums of amount in the name of social business. The only thing that most of them go waste and hence their inability to address the needs of poor people.

UNI