Bangladesh is days away from electing its next government, a year-and-a-half after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a strong student-led protest.
Hasina fled the country, and Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge as the leader of an interim government in the country.
Who is Muhammad Yunus?
Born in 1940 in the Chittagong District of the Bengal Presidency (now in Bangladesh), he studied in Lamabazar Primary School. He passed the matriculation examination from Chittagong Collegiate School, ranking 16th among 39,000 students in East Pakistan.
In 1957, Yunus enrolled in the Department of Economics at Dhaka University and completed his graduation in Economics in 1960 and master's in 1961. In 1965, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in the US, where he completed his PhD in Economics in 1969.
Yunus' role in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War
During the war, he founded the Bangladesh Citizens' Committee in the US to raise awareness, support and funds. All members of the committee were required to contribute 10% of their salaries every month to the fund.
He even published the Bangladesh Newsletter from his home in Nashville to convey the news of the Bangladeshi people through the US media.
He narrated the scenario in his autobiography called "Banker to the Poor."
"On 25 March 1971, the Liberation War broke out in Bangladesh, and our plans to return there were abandoned. I devoted myself to the cause of liberation. Like all Bengalis, I was keeping a close watch on the events in Dhaka," he wrote.
Yunus even stated that he organised protests in the US, and they were widely covered by the media. He also helped set up the Bangladesh Information Centre in Washington to coordinate lobbying in the US House and Senate. He travelled across US university campuses to organise teach-ins and awareness programs.
On December 16, 1971, Bangladesh gained independence, and he returned to the country.
Founder of Grameen Bank
The war caused widespread poverty in the country. So, he established a Grameen Bank, which focused on welfare programs for backward and marginalised sections of society. He created a microfinance model that provided small loans to the poor without requiring collateral.
This model became hugely successful and inspired similar projects in around 100 developing countries. Even some developed countries like the United States have adopted versions of this model to help low-income communities.
In 2001, Yunus was named a member of the Ashoka: Innovators for the Public Global Academy for his work with Grameen.
Global presence
From 1993 to 1995, Muhammad Yunus was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women.
He has also served on several high-profile UN and international committees, including the Global Commission of Women's Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.
Nobel Peace Prize award
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to combat poverty and promote economic and social development from the grassroots. He was the first Bangladeshi to get the honour.
He has also been the recipient of several awards, such as the Mohamed Shabdeen Award for Science (1993), Humanitarian Award (1993), Independence Day Award (1987), Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth (2004), Seoul Peace Prize (2006).
