Hyderabad: The charity made by Muslims every year for the upliftment of the community is an obligation on every Muslim to donate 2.5% of their savings every year, in case they possess any savings for a complete year.
For the past years, there wasn’t any account for knowing to which areas, the funds were utilised. However, the trend seems to be changing in the recent past for channelising of the Zakat funds.
Syed Yusuf, an educationist and a former NRI said the funds are being used to provide poor students education. “Foreign remittances from NRIs came and with this came zakat funds. Soon, a realisation came about that zakat funds should go for the education of the poor. This is because many NRIs themselves witnessed poverty,” TOI reports.
Yusuf, who runs a school in Toli Chowki further said several donors over the past decade have quietly funded the education of underprivileged students. “Many zakat payers are financially assisting students.”
On the other hand, the noted philanthropist Zaheeruddin Ali Khan holds a different vision. He says that sections of the community realised that its empowerment relied only upon education. “The realisation that education was the only antidote to the social deprivation of Muslims came about because of this. Our Millat Fund, which receives donations, has seen over 2,000 student beneficiaries every year,” he said.
“Several reports have shown that Muslims continue to constitute the largest number of school drop-outs and their enrollment in higher education was lowest among all communities. A socio-economic change can come about if more people come forward to use their zakat charity to educate those from weaker sections of the community,” he added.