Poverty Alleviation: A Key Forward For Welfare Organizations

Every society is an amalgamation of well off and worst off. The economy of each society is
changeable. Everyone has a dream of becoming rich and to extend hand for helping the worst
off. Karl Marx has defined it in terms of Haves & Have-not’s & emphasized mostly on
materialism in a way that only money forces a person to crush others. Undoubtedly only this
instinct of material pushes a person to crush others but it is not a true that all the haves do
have this instinct. Some of the haves/well off shares their wealth among the poor and needy
people in one way or the other. They don’t want to let worst off section of their society to live a
miserable life. There are so many stories of such kind of persons who are always in forefront to
help the needy. Almost all the religions emphasis on the alms, charity, donations etc. and the
era of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) witnessed a flourishing charity system where He(PBUH)
used to give all his possessions to the needy while sleeping without taking a food stuff. The
Companions of Prophet(PBUH) also used to handover maximum shares of their wealth into
charity & the best example among them are 1st & 2nd Caliphs who often were in competition
since they embraced Islam to get the most rewards by giving charity. The other Muslim
emperors used to give golden coins to the beggars. This all was happening under the roof of an
organized way called Baitul Maal. It is an essential department for alleviating the poverty at
grassroots level. Therefore all the wealthy persons are not materialistic as indicated by Marx
but they bother about others as well.

Today such persons are present in every society & they remains vigilant in identification of
needy among their communities but what they lacks is an absence of organized Baitul Maal. A
successful story of organized Baitul Maal in present era was an effort by the socio-politicoreligious
organization of our state namely Jamaat e Islami J&K. when the ban was imposed
against it in March 2019, the Govt. ceased an amount of 52 crore rupees from the organizations
Baitul Maals. How the JeI J&K had got such a huge amount in this materialistic period stroked
the mindset of all the readers. This huge amount was collected through the common people
who were donating their share of wealth as per the 2.5% Zakat to the Baitul Maal.

Unfortunately, this human welfare organization has been banned but we should not worry
about it. It is a way forward for all those people who want to diminish the miserable of poor
people by the process of collection & distribution of this wealth. In Islam, the amount in Baitul
Maal is not a property of any person but the privilege & right of every deserving person.
Currently, we do have welfare organizations (referring to those organizations only who are
dependent on local donations) in place of these organized Baitul Maals, whose number is
increasing day by day. A plenty of organizations are available in every nook & corner of our
state & especially in Srinagar but poor is still becoming poorest. Therefore there is a fault in this
system of welfare & consequently the quantity of destitute increases day by day. I suggest all
the organization holders to pay some kind attention towards the fault by which we are still not
be able to alleviate the level of poverty. I think there is a vast difference between the system of
Baitul Maal & an organization.

What a Baitul Maal can do cannot be done by an organization in the following areas:-
 It can verify the applicant in a proper way & the significant others of applicant will be
contacted
 Once contacted all the history & present situation of applicant will be analyzed
 The proper & legible need assessment will be prepared
 A fair & just help will be extended
 After receiving help, the beneficiary will be the sole responsible for utilizing the money
in a proper way because he will be under the surveillance of local Baitul Maal
 Both the parties(giver & taker) will be in a regular contact
 The beneficiary will be followed regularly
 The amount received by the beneficiary won’t go in vain
 The donors will be satisfied that their money is utilized in a proper way

These are the benefits of local Baitul Maal. Instead of going from one place to another a poor
person can get solution to his problem in his locality in a smooth way.

Now what these organizations will do because it is a matter of earning for the employees who
are currently in job for these organizations. I suggest the heads of all these organizations to
complete all the documents with govt. (registration either companies or societies & FCRA) & to
build rapport with the funding & donor organizations & apply for the grants in aid from the
social welfare departments. This will help you to continue your existence. By this way you will
be more professional, transparent, dedicated & your work won’t be confined to the valley only
or dependent on the donations only but you must have a dream of working in other countries
as well in a professional way.

All these changes will require professionals who thankfully are
now available in our state like social workers, finance holders, business professionals, HR
management or the others.

Views and details expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Newsville