There are some persons who walk upon this planet and leave their footmarks on the flow of time. Their thoughts, their works inspire millions to change the way we think, the way we view the world and professor Muhammad Yunus belongs to one of those rare individuals whose thoughts and work have not only changed the lives of the downtrodden of the people of Bangldesh but may have broken fresh and new grounds for the people of underdeveloped and developing countries. He had the rare courage and conviction to challenge the cold logic of economics as is followed by the banking institutions in their lending practices. Going by his personal experiences of the phenomenon of poverty, he was extremely pained and disturbed to see a woman who had borrowed just five taka from a village moneylender on a blood-sucking condition forcing her to sell her products at a price to be decided by him!

Being curious and utterly shocked he made further inquiries which revealed that some other members of the village also borrowed money from the same moneylender which totaled around eight hundred fifty six takas. These 42 families were made virtual bonded laborers by the usurer. He took personal initiative to pay this money to them to set them free. Thus he got a first hand account of the true state of affairs of the functioning of the village monetary system in which mainstream financial and banking institutions cease to be of any meaning to these people. His next stop was a branch of a bank and he met the manager to apprise him of this grim state of affairs. But to his utter disappointment and dismay he had to hear the same predictable arguments that the poor rank very poorly in the rating of creditworthiness. The same mindset and the same set of arguments! His sense of disillusionment was complete with the ways of the banks. He saw very little chance to change old mindsets of the bankers to make any impact in the lives of these hapless people. And decided to chart his own course.

It was in the middle of the year 1976, he started disbursing loans to the needy rural poor catering to their small credit needs ranging from buying rickshaws, vending vegetables to running tea-shops and taking personal responsibility for their repayment. It was nothing but an honest effort to make the entire process of lending money to the disadvantaged section of our society easier. To his great and pleasant surprise and contrary to the archaic beliefs of the bankers about their poor trustworthiness, the people repaid the money on time and that was a regular feature. Emboldened by his experiment and success he went on expanding the program through the existing banking networks before he finally set up a bank of his own which is now the famous 'Gramin Bank' the whole world knows. And the idea of 'micro-credit' or 'micro-finance' was born. It is a blessing for countless poor people in the form of collateral free loans.

India which has more than two-thirds people living in the villages who are in the clutches of cruel and unscrupulous moneylenders ,can benefit immensely by replicating what professor Yunus has done for his country.