Development of Bangladesh: Role of grameen bank and brac

Bangladesh spread over to an area of 144,000 square kilometres is home of around 140 million people with high density of population-1178 persons/square kilometre in 2006. The population growth rate in 2003 was 1.9 per cent which even two decades back was nearing to 3 per cent. With the intervention of government and nongovernmental organisations population growth rate has came down. One of the principles of Grameen Bank is to have small family. Agriculture is the main stay of its people as more than 60 per cent labour force is employed in agriculture and 65 percent of its land under agriculture while people's dependent on manufacturing sector is not even 10 per cent.

Apart from Government, many NGOs have been working among the rural poor for their development. Role of Grameen Bank and BRAC-two leading NGOs-is analysed here. Prof Muhammad Yunus has been pioneer in this regard through his Grameen Bank activities. BRAC, a development organisation founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in February 1972, soon after the liberation of Bangladesh, has acted as initiator and catalyst for chronic deprivation, hunger, injustice etc. Activities of Grameen Bank and BRAC have been analysed in this article.