The Grameen Bank micro-credit programme for ‘struggling members’ in Bangladesh: Empowerment to tackle social exclusion

Outcomes

Although there is no compulsion for the beggars to give up their previous lifestyle, 31% of them have now given up begging and moved on to being business people. They are now selling popular items at the places of begging. They are given identity badges with their name, picture, and bank’s logo, as physical evidence of the bank's support behind them. They can display these badges to let everybody know that they are Grameen Bank members and that this national institution is supporting them. The programme also supports their members with social development inputs by raising their social consciousness, and delivering health and nutrition training.

In 2006, during a BBC interview, cited in Dowla and Barua (2006), Syman talked about the contrast between her previous miserable days and later her good days as a supplier of goods to homes in her village: “I struggled hard while raising my children. I don’t have my father, or mother, or even my husband to look after them. We struggled a lot. No one suffered like me… So, when you came and gave me a loan, and now I go selling biscuits, cookies around the village, I honestly feel happy. This is much better than going around begging with empty hands.”