A SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CONCERNING THE STATE OF PUTTALAM IN SRI LANKA
A SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CONCERNING THE STATE OF PUTTALAM IN SRI LANKA

Summary/Abstract: The Muslim population around the world today has become disease stricken with poverty and has turned into one of the bottoms most sections of society. Even though measures have been taken to elevate the lifelines of poor people, it has not functioned as the perfect solution to eradicate poverty. But through Zakath - the Islamic poverty eradication system, the measures for improving the lives of poor people were carried out. Titled "A Sociological Research concerning the state of Puttalam", this research seeks to find out the role played by the Zakath system in improving the living standards of the people in Puttalam. This research was aimed at finding out the way the Zakath system is operated in this region, and to evaluate the role played by Zakath in changing the education, economic and sociological scenarios. As this is related to sociology, first stage and second stage collection methods were employed to obtain the required data for this research. The first stage data were obtained using the "Questionnaire" method. 60 people were selected using the "Simple Random sampling" method and were given the questionnaire. Out of them, 51 questionnaires were received back. Based on that, and through information obtained by interviews and observation, analysis was carried out. The second stage data was taken from the statistical information given in the registers of the Baithus Zakath, the internet, books and journals. It is important to mention that this research is divided into 5 chapters based on a variety of data as mentioned above. The titles contained in this, relates with the research hypothesis. From this research, we come to know that the Baithus Zakath organization in Puttalam is successful in eradicating poverty through building of houses, educational assistance fund, Nasrul Hasan and entrepreneurial encouragement. We could also infer that gathering collective Zakath and distributing it, will ensure the best benefit. In addition, this research was able to identify the challenges faced because of less clarity on the subject of Zakath, giver, giving of a smaller amount because of non-clarity on Nisab, the narrowing down of giving of Zakath to only family members and employees, ignorance of the fact that Zakath is a collective obligation, the criticism about Zakath organizations and the laxity of its administrators. All kinds of efforts were put in, to prove the hypothesis of this research in an elegant way. From this research it is clear that the Puttalam's Baithus Zakath fund is partly responsible in eradicating poverty.

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