Zakat Poverty Line Index and Gender Poverty in Malaysia: Some Issues and Practices

Abstract

Zakat is one of the financial resources for an Islamic country to improve their society economy, especially those who in the bottom line. An effective zakat management in terms of collection and distribution will create a prosperous life for the asnaf (zakat recipient). However, the current method of zakat distribution in Malaysia which focusing on the visible assistance form on periodic basis seems cannot solve the poverty issue in the Muslim community. Despite the increasing amount of zakat collection and distribution, the amount of poor and hardcore poor are also continue to increase from year to year. This is due to some weaknesses in the distribution method. The current zakat distribution did not addressed the different needs among household head gender in calculating the Zakat Poverty Line (Had kifayah). Women often have to live with greater social constraints than men do. Legal and cultural restrictions, for example, mean that women have fewer possibilities than men in improving their lives economically by their own efforts. In order for zakat distribution to provide significant impact on the quality of life among the poor and needy, immediate actions need to be done to ensure that at least their needs are satisfied and adequate. The amount of zakat distribution should be re-evaluate due to the current amount is not suitable because of their different needs and consumption patterns between the household head gender. The methodology of this article is based solely on a review of literatures on the topic of poverty among gender and female headships. Therefore, this article aims to review previous studies based on differences of poverty between different gender households head. The general finding of this article shows that a new method of setting Had Kifayah should be designed based on current requirement and needs of household head of different gender..

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