DHAKA (Reuters) - Grameen Bank, famous for pioneering micro-credit programs in Bangladesh, has launched a new idea to empower the poor: providing beggars with mobile phones so they can sell a roving service for cash. "Beggars are the one group so far left out of the bank's lending program and they deserve to be part of our network," said Dipal Chandra Barua, deputy managing director of Grameen Bank.

　　"We won't ask them to stop begging immediately but would encourage them to ask people...if they need to make a phone call... The money the beggars get from calls would give them extra income -- of which they will use a part to reimburse the cost of the cellphone to the bank." Beggars would need to be a member of a Grameen Bank project to be eligible to get a mobile phone. Each phone will cost them 8,500 taka ($143), repayable over two years in interest-free installments. They would also pay a subsidized monthly service charge of 152 taka.(听英文53684)