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Mahesh

03/01/24 06:22 AM IST

Bangladesh court has sentenced Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus to jail

In News
  • Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus was sentenced to six months in jail by a court in Bangladesh for violating the country’s labour laws.
  • The 83-year-old, credited with pioneering the system of micro-finance loans to help impoverished people, was granted bail pending appeal.
Muhammad Yunus
  • Born in 1940 in Chittagong, Yunus received his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, USA, in 1969 and subsequently, became an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
  • After Bangladesh was formed in 1972, he returned to his homeland and was appointed head of the economics department at Chittagong University.
  • As Bangladesh struggled to stabilise its economy and tackle poverty in the post-independence years, Yunus came up with a unique idea to help the impoverished.
  • He decided to provide small loans to entrepreneurs who wouldn’t normally qualify for bank loans, on terms suitable to them.
  • Grameen Bank is credited with lifting millions from poverty — it has disbursed collateral-free loans of $34.01 billion among 9.55 million people since its inception.
  • The recovery rate is 97.22%.
  • Owing to the grand success of Grameen Bank, banks based on this model operate in more than 100 countries today.
  • In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly received the Nobel Prize in Peace “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”
  • The professor came to be known as the “Banker to the Poor”.
Sentence to jail
  • The Third Court of Dhaka  found Yunus’ company, Grameen Telecom, which he founded as a non-profit, guilty of violating labour laws.
  • According to the judgement, 67 of the company employees were supposed to be made permanent, which they were not, and the employees’ participation and welfare funds were not created.
  • Moreover, as per company policy, 5% of the company’s dividends were supposed to be distributed to staff, which was not done.
  • The court convicted Yunus, as chairman of Grameen Telecom, and three other company directors, sentencing each to six months in jail.
  • Grameen Telecom owns 34% of Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone company, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecom giant Telenor.
Other cases
  • Yunus is said to be facing more than 150 cases. In 2015, he was summoned by Bangladesh’s revenue authorities over non-payment of taxes amounting to $1.51 million.
  • Two years before that, he was put on trial for allegedly receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize award and royalties from a book.
  • In 2011, Yunus was removed as managing director of Grameen Bank for allegedly violating government retirement regulations.
  • The mounting litany of cases against Yunus has garnered concern globally. In August last year, 160 international figures, including former US President Barack Obama and ex-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, signed a joint letter denouncing the “continuous judicial harassment” of Yunus.
  • The signatories, including more than 100 of his fellow Nobel laureates, said they feared for “his safety and freedom”.
Source- Indian Express

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