BANKER TO THE POOR is autobiography-cum-story of Grameen(rural) bank founded in Bangladesh
by Mohammed Yunus who recieved Nobel prize in 2006.
Yunus was born in Chittagong(Bangladesh) in a jeweller family and had several siblings.He
had a very loving mother but later on his mother contracted psychiatric illness.He studied
in Local schools and colleges, but later on went to US to study.During that time, war started
in Bangladesh and he supported formation of Bangladesh from there, also he got married there
with Vera and had a daughter, but when he came back to Bangladesh, his wife had differences
with him on their daughter’s education and they separated, he later on had a second marriage
with Afrozi and had a daughter .But the book is more or less about Grameen bank which he
founded when he saw extreme poverty in a village called Jobra which was along side his
college where he taught economics.
He started the theory of micro-credit and started giving very small amounts of money as loan
in villages.In a country like Bangladesh where women do not talk to strangers and are
dependent on males in their families for everything, he revolutionized the whole scenario and
made poor rural women economically independent which corrected other social problems too
like dowry, non-education and wife beating.
Grameen bank was replicated later on in many countries including India and US too.Also
Grameen check(cloth), grameen phone, grameen shikkha(education) and many such things were
launched later on which changed the lives of millions of people in Bangladesh and other
countries who were needy and poor but hardworking at the same time.
I am not sure if Indian grameen bank has some connection with it, if it does have, this is
news to me as I didn’t know this came from Bangladesh.Also, i found another rather odd thing
in this book that despite India being very helpful in making of Bangladesh, Yunus has not
used additional words of any trace of gratitude in this book except writing that they
operated from Indian cities during crisis.Also in childhood, he was anti India and has not
explained if his views ever changed when India helped his country.May be he was too busy
explaining the story of Grameen Bank.Anyway, he did wonderful job for poor and needy.
Thanks for reading my review.