This is a resettlement study of youth and poverty in the System “C” Zone of the Mahaweli. The research seeks to study the second and third generations of land settlers, based on Sri Lanka’s multipurpose development programme which was rooted in the history of Sri Lanka’s socio economic development process. The main objective of this study is to understand how marginalization of the second and third generations of land settlers has led to social disintegration and to identify ways in which the condition of these groups can be improved. The two main questions asked focus on how youth marginalization is expressed in social, economic and political domains and how the youth cope with poverty, without an enabling environment for social development.