Copycat Rahul wants to spread Grameen Bank's concept

Rahul wants to spread Grameen Bank's concept across India
Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi

India's ruling Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is impressed by Grameen Bank's 'huge success' in Bangladesh, and has said he wants to propagate the concept of micro financing and self-help groups across India.

Addressing more than 1,000 women and members of self-help groups, who have benefited from micro financing model in his poverty-stricken parliamentary constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state on Friday, Rahul hoped the concept being implemented there gets due recognition and wins Nobel Prize as was the case with Grameen Bank.

"I had gone to Bangladesh recently. It (concept of micro financing and self-help groups) is a huge success there with workers saying they can win Nobel Prize for their efforts in this direction," he said.

The Indian lawmaker mentioned that women in Bangladesh have been empowered, and they are taking their own decisions. If India has to move forward, poverty has to be eradicated first, he added.

Son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul urged Indian women to move out of the confines of their houses to ensure success of micro financing scheme and victory in the fight against poverty. 

Rahul, who had initiated the concept of micro financing in Amethi in 1990s, said, "A sapling has been planted which has grown into a tree in Amethi. Now, I want to create a jungle and spread it all over Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere in the country."

The scheme has now involved more than 20,000 women in Amethi.