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"Poverty is often a women’s issue"
An
interview with Khondaker Muzammel Huq, general manager Grameen Bank
As general manager of the Grameen Bank for the
last 10 years, Khondaker Muzammel Huq shoulders a heavy task. He is
responsible for programme coordination, overseeing institutional
development, resource mobilisation, loan negotiations, coordinating
donor missions and review meetings, coordinating media coverage and
representing Muhammad Yunus, managing director of Grameen Bank,
while outside Bangladesh. Huq spoke to Kavita Charanji in both Delhi
and Dhaka. Excerpts from the interview:
On Grameen Bank’s contribution to poverty
alleviation
W hat
we have tried to do is create an institution where poor people,
particularly poor women, can have access to investment capital at
commercial rates. Since we do not require any collateral security,
the entire organisational structure is geared towards banking
through social mobilisation at the community level.
We
train our staff on how to go about in villages and identify poor
people. The poor organise themselves into groups of five in villages
and about six-eight groups from the same village federate into a
centre which is an informal cooperative. They elect their own
leaders and the leadership changes every year. Since they are from
the same village, they all know each other and are familiar with
each other’s capabilities. They choose who will undertake what kind
of activity and the amount of capital needed for that activity. All
transactions are done openly and publicly in front of all centre
members in the weekly meetings attended by a bank officer.
On
Grameen Bank’s philosophy
The basic philosophy
is that the bank will go to the people, the people will not go to
the bank. Today we have over 2.2 million members (women comprise 95
per cent of the membership) in 37,000 out of 68,000 villages of
Bangladesh. In order to meet these people in 64,000 locations, the
bank staff have to walk and cycle 50,000 kms every working day.
Since
inception our members have borrowed more than Taka 91,000 million
which is about US $ 2-3 billion. About 90 per cent of our borrowers
cannot read or write. We have made financial capital available to
them to use their skills which they have either acquired or
inherited using their existing skills. The most important skill
being the survival skill, they have invested in more than 500 types
of income generating activities.
On
criteria adopted for lending
Our objective is to
provide financial capital to the poorest of the poor. We have a
strict definition of the poor. One criterion is assets both moveable
and immovable so any person who wishes to be a member of the bank
must not own more than half an acre of land. If the person’s family
does not have any land but if the entire assets of the family exceed
the price of one acre of unirrigated land in that particular area,
then the person will not qualify for a loan. So if the family owns
more than 30,000 taka of assets, the person will not qualify.
On wage
employment versus self employment
Mahatma Gandhi
talked about 700,000 self reliant Indian villages. He visualised
village economies as the main economy. He saw every family both as a
production and consumption unit. The other part of Gandhian
philosophy was that self employment would be the main thrust of the
economy and not wage employment.
All
over the world governments are realising that wage employment has
its limits because fewer and fewer people will be required for wage
employment. I think that in the future the educational system will
change and prepare people for self employment. The idea is that
people enjoy what they are doing and they will turn their skills
into income generating activities.
On the
role of micro-credit enterprises in promoting self employment
Today all over the
world, particularly in South Asia, people with little or no
education have little prospect in the wage employment market. If
these people have access to resources - and one important resource
is investment capital - then most of them will be able to create
their own employment and increase their income. The plus point of
this is that they won’t have to move from their villages and won’t
be separated from their families because most micro-credit
enterprises are family enterprises, particularly when the
initiatives are taken by women.
On the
role of women in setting up enterprises
When women borrow
investment capital in Bangladesh for enterprises such as paddy
husking, poultry, livestock and vegetable growing, the entire family
is involved. But when men have access to investment capital and set
up enterprises in marketplaces, the other members of the family,
especially women and teenage children, have very little scope to
participate. If the aim is to overcome poverty and strive for a live
of honour and dignity, these can be achieved faster and in more
sustainable ways if women are involved.
On the
greater resilience of women in dealing with poverty and hunger
I think what we can
safely say from our experience of the last two decades is that
poverty cannot be addressed in any meaningful way without the
participation of women. I feel poverty and hunger in the
subcontinent is basically a women’s issue. Men somehow are able to
avoid or escape from the traumatic experience of poverty and hunger,
which women cannot. When the situation is bad, men are able to leave
home very early in the morning and come back at night.
When
the situation goes beyond a tolerable limit- which is set by men
themselves-they often run away from the family. Women are not able
to run away leaving their children behind so they go through the
traumatic experience on a daily basis of not being able to feed
their children and often seeing them die. Given a chance, a woman
turns out to be a better and more determined fighter in overcoming
poverty and hunger.
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" All
over the world governments are realising
that wage employment has its limits because fewer and fewer
people will be required for wage employment. I think that in
the future the educational system will change and prepare
people for self employment." |
There
is a difference between a poor man earning an income and a poor
woman earning an income. When a poor man increases his income, the
dream is more about himself. He tries to show that he is in a better
financial situation by telling friends that he can now see films,
entertain and buy better clothes. When a woman increases her income,
her plans devolve on how to stabilise the economic situation of the
family and how to minimise the uncertainties of life. So her main
thrust is on how to build food security for her family, improve
housing and the education of her children. Her bottom line is that
she does not want her children to go through what she has gone
through. Her dream is that of a better quality of life for her
family.
On
Grameen Bank’s international standing
Grameen Bank is one
of the most researched and reported about organisations in the world
today. People from all over the world wanted to find out how the
bank lent thousands of crores without a legal instrument between the
lender and the borrower and how on earth the poorest women had
become owners of our bank.
On
Grameen Bank’s new projects
The notable new
projects of Grameen Bank are Grameen Udyog, Grameen Telecom, Grameen
Trust, Grameen Krishi Foundation and Grameen Fisheries. To give an
idea on what some of these companies are doing, Grameen Udyog’s
objective is to revive the handloom industry and link it up in a
modern, business-like way with Bangladesh’s booming export-oriented
garment industry. It is now responsible for globally marketing the
hand-woven fabrics made by the weavers of Bangladesh. It supplies
the weavers with raw materials such as yarn and dyes, enabling the
weavers to fill orders from home and abroad according to
international standards. Grameen Udyog has field offices located in
the villages where the weavers live. The field staff ensure quality
by intensive supervision. The company directly provides assistance
to the weaves by supplying working capital in kind such as yarn and
dyes; developing and procuring new designs; providing marketing
services within the country and abroad; and ensuring quality and
standardisation through supervision.
The
fabric produced by handloom weavers under the supervision of the
company is called Grameen Check. Grameen Check is made with 100 per
cent cotton yarn and, being entirely handwoven, is an
environment-friendly fabric.
Grameen
Telecom’s objective is to bring the information revolution to the
rural people of Bangladesh. Grameen Telecom is planning, over the
next four years, to provide 900 cellular mobile phone service to 100
million rural inhabitants in 68,000 villages of Bangladesh by
financing 60,000 members of Grameen Bank to provide village pay
phone service and providing direct phones to potential Donationrs.
Grameen
Krishi Foundation works with farmers in north Bangladesh and Tangail
district. Among its numerous objectives are the improvement of
irrigation facilities; the transfer of new technologies to farmers
and other partners of the foundation; the supply of agricultural
inputs to small and marginal farmers at affordable prices;
assistance to farmers in increasing crop yields and the production
of quality seeds.
Grameen
Trust supports and promotes programmes to reduce poverty modelled on
the Grameen Bank; offers training and assistance to national and
international organisations replicating Grameen Bank; builds an
international network of people and institutions working on poverty
alleviation and publishes material aimed at disseminating
information about the Grameen Bank Replication Programme.
Grameen
Motsho (Fisheries) Foundation undertakes the production,
transportation, storage and marketing of fish to improve the quality
of life of the poor; plans, organises and operates fisheries and
industrial, commercial or any other type of fishery-based
enterprises which will help to promote employment, income
generation, professional and management skills of the poor. q
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