Thank you for bringing out an issue (Radiance, 8-14 March, 09) focused on microfinance as an instrument of poverty alleviation. This humble scribe has been writing about this, in the context mainly of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, recommending to the Indian Muslim community leadership to take it up on a large scale but after ridding it of the element of interest. This issue of Radiance, however, clarifies the differences between the GB model and other models such as Self Help Groups and Cooperative Societies. This reading was educative indeed.
The contribution by Mr. Arshad Ajmal is impressive. This scribe was, however, disappointed by the piece by Dr. Rahmatullah. He is a very senior practitioner in the area of poverty alleviation but his piece is too short to illuminate the reader’s mind conceptually, and ends abruptly. (Hope he will come out with a more comprehensive piece on the subject.)
Hopefully, the Jamaat will soon create an NGO to take up poverty alleviation (without any element of interest) to work on a large scale for the poor and the wretched of this country.
Chaudhari Fariduddin
Safat, Kuwait