Building the “three zero” society

Talk by a Nobel Laureate- Professor Muhammad Yunus

Nobel prize for Peace 2006

For the social and economic development of the poor in Bangladesh

In his enthralling and heart warming talk at the Indian science congress 2017 held in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, earlier this year, the Nobel Prize winner for peace 2006, talked of his personal journey that turned into a revolution. Back in 1972, Professor Yunus joined a university in Chittagong as a professor of economics, soon after Bangladesh became an independent country. After a brief span of time, he witnessed a famine that left millions of people dying and suffering. “What are you good for if humans die because they have nothing to eat?” he says, with a heavy voice that invigorates that his heart cries for the poor.

He wanted nothing but to help. Education is relevant, only if it benefits the society. “Can I make my education useful to people?” he asked himself. This marked the beginning of years of hard work and perseverance that translated into the concept of Grameen bank.

It started with lending his own money to poor people, who would have otherwise approached loan sharks (those who lend money on unacceptable terms) and subjected themselves to slavery and more suffering. Despite searching hard for a permanent solution, he found no bank or organization that could meet the financial needs of the poor on easy terms. Even the banks give loans to people who are credit worthy, and that’s an irony. “I don’t accept this ideology, you give money to people who already have money. You should give it to those who need it”, he said.

It was then that he decided to make his own bank. A bank that is for poor and needy. In 1983, he started the Grameen bank that provided microcredit, that is, loans to poor people on easy terms. This bank was different from a conventional bank. It required no collateral, and it gave loans without any guarantee and paperwork. There was no punishment clause. They gave loans to women, who invested this money in doing some business that earned a livelihood for the whole family.

“Our repayment rate is close to 100% and we never lost that number. We have an excess of money and we never fell short of it. Last year, our deposit has been more than 2 billion dollars”, Prof. Yunus says. Unlike conventional banks that are owned by rich people, Grameen bank is owned by the poor.

When the families became financially independent, the bank urged their kids to go to school and encouraged them by providing fellowships, awards, and loans. They also lend money to unemployed youngsters with business ideas.

India too tried to adopt the same concept in Andhra Pradesh but failed because it was misinterpreted and wrongly implemented. Today, Professor Yunus advocates and helps countries in setting up microcredit institutions to eradicate poverty and misery, empower women, and generate employment.

“A new society of ‘three zeroes’ could help us rebuild the world or a new civilization by 2050, which will be free of greed and full of human health”, he says.  The ‘three zero’ society is his dream and vision.

‘Zero poverty’ is the primary goal of an ideal society that Yunus envisages. “Three decades from now, we should be building poverty museums, where our future generations would go to know what poverty looked like, because for them, it won’t exist,” he said while addressing the science congress. ‘Zero Unemployment’ is the second goal. “99% of the total world wealth resides in the hands of its 1% population, and that is unfair”, he said. The world where there is no wealth concentration, and humans become job creators instead of job seekers, would be the world for all. ‘Zero net carbon emissions’ is the third goal. This is to save our planet, Earth, from the damage that we, humans have caused.

We often think of charity as giving some money to the needy and then forgetting about it. This isn’t charity. It is an equivalent to spending money, where in return you get some soul satisfaction. One learns from Professor Yunus that to help someone, we must solve his problem, not his symptom. Change someone’s life to add meaning to your own.