The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina has been urged by numerous Nobel prize winners and a myriad of global figures to suspend the legal proceedings of her government against notable economist Muhammad Yunus. Barack Obama, former US President, and Hilary Clinton, former US Secretary of State were also some of the signatories to the August 28 letter.
In the month of March, around 40 people had written a letter that talked about the security of the economist. These 40 people also included the name of Narayan Murthy, the founder of Infosys. Such letters and more place great emphasis on the notable contributions of Muhammad Yunus in areas of poverty eradication in Bangladesh.
Getting to know Muhammad Yunus better
Muhammad Yunus is a notable economist who pursued his education in Bangladesh and the United States. Later, the man was appointed at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh as a professor of economics.
The economist is popularly known for his themes surrounding microfinance, which means offering loans of tiny amounts to marginalized people in society, the ones that are usually overlooked by the finance sector. The concept of microfinance also asserts the fact that the lack of collateral ought not to be a hurdle in the path of a loan receiver.
Muhammad Yunus is also the founder of the Grameen Bank.
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The Grameen Bank
Trust and solidarity are the principles on which the Grameen Bank was established by Yunus. The purpose was to offer micro-credit sans collateral to the people who belong to the "poorest of the poor" sectors in rural Bangladesh. As per its website, the Bank offers services in around 80,000 villages and also has around 2,500 branches.
It was in the year 1983 when the organization formally commenced working as a bank. The model has been so inspiring for economies that it has been replicated in many countries across the globe.
The organization and the economist both gained huge international attention in the year 2006 when they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to build social and economic development from the below.
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The legal proceedings against the economist
As per the August 28 letter, the signatories expressed, “One of the threats to human rights that concerns us in the present context is the case of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. We are alarmed that he has recently been targeted by what we believe to be continuous judicial harassment.”
There have been several allegations put forward against Muhammad Yunus and the Bank. The allegations talk about pursuing aggressive means to collect loans with huge interest rates. One of the allegations also points out to diversion of funds, along with failing to adhere to the norms for appointments. It was in the year 2007 when the problems of the Bank commenced, the year in which the economist forayed into politics for a very short time.
Moreover, a Danish documentary put allegations against the economist and the Grameen Bank in the year 2010 of diverting funds that were worth around $100 million provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) to the Bank. However, these allegations were disproved subsequently.
Prime Minister Hasina has named the economist as a "bloodsucker". The Prime Minister has accused Yunus of making use of force and many other measures just to recover the loans as the head of Grameen Bank from poor rural women.
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