Pune, Nov 18 : Nobel laureate and doyen of rural credit, Muhammed Yunus has been felicitated with the first 'Sakaal' Person of the Year award by Maharahstra-based Sakaal group of publications.

Speaking at the function, Yunus said that micro-credit concept has been successful in alleviating poverty and generating employment across the globe.

“Our study shows that 64 percent of the borrowers, who have been with Grameen Bank for five years or more have already crossed the poverty line and many other studies have shown similar thing consistently, ” he added.

Yunus, who founded Bangladesh's Grameen Bank in 1976, went on to say that the people who have formed self-help-groups (SHG) to procure collateral free loan from the bank were now able to send their children to school.

Lauding Yunus’ efforts in this direction, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the concept conceived by the former was no more restricted to Bangladesh or India, rather it has become a global phenomena.

Deprived sections of the society have great hopes from micro-credit and they look at it as a tool to resolve their basic problems, Pawar said yesterday.

Yunus had received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for lending to the poorest of the poor in a grassroots drive to end world poverty. He has also helped in enabling the very poorest in Bangladesh, particularly women to start up small businesses.

Yunus was also awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 1999 by India for his contribution in abolishing poverty and empowerment of women in developing countries. (ANI)