If beggars have become a nuisance on the streets, here is a way to take them off it. Beggars have become businessmen in Bangladesh, reveals Nobel laureate and proponent of micro-finance Prof Muhamad Yunus.
In the city on Tuesday, he said : “In Bangladesh, we have initiated beggars into selling various things at people’s doorsteps. Initially there was dismay and disbelief and resistance too. But later the beggars themselves found it interesting and today we have been able to wean away 22,000 of them from begging and into business.”
Advocating the concept of ‘social business’ by which he meant corporates using technology not merely for commercial purposes but for solving socio-economic problems, he said the present trend of depending on it purely for profit-making was shameful.
“Technology should be leveraged to finding solutions to various problems faced by people,” he emphasised, delivering his presidential address at the International Conference on Technology Enhanced Education (ICTEE) organised by the Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetom, at Amritapuri, near here.
Over 50 social-business initiatives he had undertaken had been driven by this motto and were doing the better for it, he said, advising the young to work with social commitment when doing business or anything else. He also exhorted policymakers and leaders in education and technology to work for fully realising the potential of everyone around.
“Education should be used in such a way that once a student is out of an institution, he should think of becoming an entrepreneur and giving jobs to others,” he added.
Later interacting with the media he regretted that patents of obsolete technology held by corporates were not being passed on for use in developing countries and called for a relook at the intellectual property act.
