Making a strong case for credit access a "human right", Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus today said the global economic crisis offers a big opportunity to rebuild and recast the financial institutions.
"When a crisis is at its deepest, it can offer a huge opportunity. When things fall apart, that creates the opportunity to redesign, recast and rebuild," Yunus, who was delivering a lecture told Members of Paliament here.
Credited with pioneering micro finance, Yunus said the opportunity thrown by the international financial crisis "should not be missed" while addressing the gathering at the Central Hall of the Parliament House.
He said the financial institutions should become inclusive. "Nobody should be refused access to financial services..Because services are so vtal for self-realisation of people.I strongly feel that credit should be given the status of human right," he said.
While big conventional banks, he said, with all their collaterals were collapsing, micro-credit programmes which do not depend on the collateral continued to be "as strong as ever".
He wondered whether this experience would make the mainstream financial institutions change their mindset. "Will they finally open their doors to the poor?" he asked.
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At the lecture, also attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Yunus said his Grameen Bank (in Bangladesh) has demonstrated that lending money to the poorest in a sustainable way is possible.
Noting that poverty is created by deficiencies in the institutions, he described how Grameen Bank has given loans to over one lakh beggars, out of which 18,000 have quit begging. "The remaining beg only part-time," he quipped.
The idea of small, collateral-free loans, he added, has been picked by the developed countires like the US. "We run a programme named Grameen America in New York...Even in the richest country, there is a need for a dedicated bank to serving the poor," Yunus said.
Saying that poverty was an artificial imposition on a person which needed to be removed, he asked the leaders to dream of a well-functioning South Asian Union by 2030.
"There will be no visa required, no customs officials limiting travel among the South Asian countries. There will be common flag, along side our national flags, a common currency, and a large area of common domestic and international policies," Yunus said, adding these dreams would come true provided "we believe in them and work for them."
Welcoming Yunus, Singh described him as a great visionary and said India has much to learn from Nobel laureate who applied his knowledge to reduce poverty of millions of people.