A pitch to route zakat towards education and jobs

[related-post]

AMP has taken to the Internet to achieve that objective. With 50 chapters across India, it has launched an online campaign called “AMP Zakat Fund” in which it is seeking money. “There are some estimates which state that the zakat given in India is in excess of Rs 40,000 crore. In Mumbai alone zakat worth tens of crores gets distributed,” Idrisi says.

The amount is either distributed piecemeal to individuals or goes into madrasas to fund religious education. Many groups in India collect zakat and utilise it for community work. There have been complaints, however, that too large a chunk goes into funding madrasas and very little is done for empowerment of the community.

“If we look at ground realities, we will find that the major portion of zakat is distributed in pieces. The huge amount has never been used as a tool for poverty alleviation. It has never been used as the tool to transform the beneficiary of today into benefactors of tomorrow,” said Mohammed, a member of AMP’s Delhi chapter.

“Zakat has to be given in such a way that it makes a substantial effect on the person who gets it. Whatever amount we collect as zakat thorugh our campaign we plan to distribute by giving packages of Rs 25,000 for education and Rs 50,000 for someone looking to start a small business,” Idrisi said.

Akhlaque Pathan is heading a group of 25 young Muslim professionals from Nashik who have decided to collect zakat money and distribute it among a small group of people to ensure effective use of the money. “Rather then zakat being utilised piecemeal we need the have a strategic objective on its utilisation. It can be and should be used as a corpus to bring other Muslims out of poverty and empower them rather then spending it in building madrasas,” Akhlaque Pathan said.