Other Side of the Coin: The Psychological Implications of Microcredit

Microcredit banking is the brainchild of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus Professor of Economics at Chittagong University, Bangladesh and Chair of Grameen Bank. From small beginnings, the Microcredit movement has become worldwide. Professor Yunus determined to find a new way to make loans to impoverished peasants who commercial banks would not give credit to as they could not provide the security for the loan. Yunus devised a method to provide microloans to individuals who formed themselves into small groups aiming at mutual support. The loan was provided to the group for each to benefit in sequence. The group, based on trust, originally worked together so that the loan was repaid by the first recipient and then given in turn to the other members. The self-esteem of the recipients was raised by the success of the group members in repaying the loan becoming shareholders of the Grameen Bank. From small beginnings, Grameen Bank has grown into a successful organisation with world-wide connections to other microcredit enterprises. This book looks in depth at the psycho-socio-dynamics of poverty, at mobilising constructive forces of groups to empower borrowers to become effective agents. The volume is grounded upon consideration of poverty as a psychological as much as an economic condition, and discusses microcredit as an innovative tool to overcome poverty in that perspective. It will pay special attention to the Grameen model considered through the special relational technology associated with it, which draws upon solidarity-lending groups and community interaction.