Building rural economy key to halt mirgration: Nobel laureate Yunus

Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus on Saturday said building rural economy is important to stop migration amid the challenges caused due to coronavirus pandemic. "Microcredit is about building a rural economy. Corona crisis has given the industry an opportunity to aid in creating a strong rural economy. Creating a strong independent rural economy will not only halt rural to urban migration but in the years to come, the migration will be urban to rural," Yunus said at a webinar by microfinance industry.

Microfinance institutions should create programmes like venture capital to create entrepreneurs in rural India, he said. There is a need for creating a national disaster fund for the sector and managed by the sector in India, Yunus said while speaking in the webinar organised by Sa-Dhan, a self-regulatory organisation for the industry.

Notably, India has been witnessing reverse migration of labourers and workers to their home states as lockdown imposed due to coronavirus pandemic affected them badly economically alongside a huge number of job losses as well.