Yunus was addressing the conference on Women of South Asia: Partners in Development being organised by Jamia Millia Islamia in collaboration with South Asia Foundation.

Talking about his Grameen Bank model, Yunus in his talk on “Women, Micro Credit and Poverty Alleviation” said, “there was a time in Bangladesh when women were not lent money. Today, the Grameen Bank has 8 million borrowers, 97 per cent of whom are women.”

Yunus also said that while the economic slowdown has had a huge impact on South Asian countries, the status of energy, poverty and education are also an equal challenge.

The conference was attended by women from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka who share common challenges and goals.

Participants exchanged ideas on how to empower women by strengthening their health, education and economic status.

They also discussed ways to set up a women’s network in South East Asia so that they learn new models of improving their living standards while also preserving their culture.

The ideas were discussed over group sessions on Women and Micro credit, Women in Education, Women in Peace-making, Women’s Malnutrition and Hunger, Women and the Environment, Women and Creativity: Crafts and Textiles and Women and Creativity: Arts and Literature.

One of the unique models learnt on the occasion was an initiative by women from Pakistan on how to improve the education of girl child in their country.

The Citizen’s Foundation has set up a network in almost 600 schools that refuse admission to the male child if his female sibling or siblings do not go to school.

At a plenary session on how to frame the network of women, Jaya Jaitley, founder and president of Dastkari Haat Samiti and Veena Sikri, Ford Foundation chair at Jamia discussed how women could approach corporate houses to sponsor their works as part of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Talking about environmental problems, Dr Vandana Shiva, Director, Navadanya Biodiversity Conservation Campaign and Programme said that women can earn a living by developing ecologically safe products. The conference will end on Tuesday.