Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 3, Back in Chittagong Summary

Chapter 3, Back in Chittagong Summary and Analysis

Yunus returns to Bangladesh in 1972 and accepts a position on the Planning Commission. He resigns because of lack of work and returns to teaching, accepting a position at Chittagong University as head of the economics department. The university is going through a difficult period when he arrives. There are big offices for department heads but no places for the rest of the faculty who refuse to grade exams, claiming the students are cheating. The students who were in the Mukti Bahini army threaten the faculty with their guns.

While commuting to the school from his father's house, Yunus notices uncultivated fields and suggests they talk to the villagers. He makes the village and its economy a classroom project for himself and his students. The traditional economic theory of prosperity trickling down to the poor does not work. The famine that strikes the nation in 1974...
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