Medal of honor to Muhammad Yunus, the controversial creator of microcredit
Dhaka (AsiaNews) - The fight against global poverty and promotion of social and economic opportunities for Bangladesh: these are the reasons that the United States has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate, creator of microcredit and founder of the Grameen Bank. Awarded on April 17, it is the highest civilian award in the United States.
In presenting the Gold Medal of the Congress, John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said: "Prof. Yunus has managed to do what is perhaps the greatest thing in the world: free people and allow them to look for a better life through micro-credit. "
Yunus is the first Bangladeshi to receive such
a recognition. However, several
times in the past he has been
criticized for his management of the
bank and for the principle
that is at the basis of microcredit.
This system is based on loans to the poor without collateral, to help
them create small businesses. The
problem is that institutions such as the Grameen Bank, founded by Yunus in 1983, leave a certain amount of cash to staff engaged on the territory, who then pledge to recover the money themselves. Most of the time,
however, these people become nothing short of moneylenders. In the past, in India it was discovered that the
microcredit systems was behind a
spate of apparently inexplicable
suicides.
Today, the Grameen Bank has over a thousand branches
with 12,500 employees. 2,100,000, customers in
37,000 villages of
which 94% are women.
.png)
