discuss the concept of famipy. explain the changing form of family in india 500word society in India
Answers
Population and Households
India's population of 846 million (Ministry of Home Affairs ¾ Social Studies Division, 1991) lives in 152 million households. These are grouped into 112 million rural and 40 million urban families. Although the urban population is a quarter of the total, its increase has been significantly large and its increasing impact on the family is inevitable. One of the stark realities in India is that life is harsh due to lack of basic, civic, educational, health, and other infra-structural facilities in both rural and urban areas. Despite the fact that the pace of urbanization has started accelerating, the overwhelming majority of Indian families is still rural based and 43% of these live below the poverty line. Nearly half of the urban poor families live in slums (Gulati, 1995).
Religious Composition of the Households
The Indian population can be divided on the basis of its religious composition. In 1981, the overwhelming majority forming 82.35% were Hindus followed by 11.74% Muslims, 2.44% Christians, 1.97% Sikhs, and 1.57% others. The Hindus are divided into numerous castes and sub-castes. Although dogmatically Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Jainism do not approve the caste division, in practice castes or caste like groups also exist in each of them.
Most Hindu castes practice the patrilineal family system, although in the south-western state of Kerala the Nairs and a few other castes practice, by tradition, the matrilineal family system. Similarly, the Garo and Khasi tribes in north-eastern India are matrilineal though their matriliny is, in some ways, different from that of the Nairs. "From joint family to elementary farmer," this has been a slogan to summarize changes in the family in India during modern times.
Family According to Indian Constitution
India has distinct personal laws for families belonging to different religions and, therefore, do not have agreed upon goals about this important aspect of civic life. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jews, and Parsis, each community has its own personal law which covers matters of personal relations and family practices such as marriage and divorce, adoption, maintenance, guardianship and custody of children, and inheritance and succession. As these laws draw from the respective religious norms, they often perpetuate traditional patriarchal norms, and slow down the process of reforms.
Although Article 44 of the Constitution states that "The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India" (Pylee, 1979, p. 471), attempts at enacting secular family laws that apply to family practices of all Indians invariably go through prolonged and bitter debate. The few attempts that have been successful have led to secular family laws such as the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929; the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1972; Special Marriage Act, 1974; Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, and provisions made in the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code. However, the interpretation and implementation of these laws leave much to be desired. Thus, there exist myriad policies for the family and its members. However, separate policies for family size, family laws, housing, children, youth, and so on, have independent objectives. In the absence of an overall family policy with explicit goals for the family, these policies affect the family in diverse ways with sometimes contradictory and negative outcomes.
During the post-independence years, studies on the Indian family were undertaken to understand the changes in family size, type, and composition as a result of the impact of modernization and urbanization. This period was characterized by many legislation concerning the Indian family (see Table 1). The most important piece of legislation was the one passed in 1956, dealing with succession, namely the Hindu Succession Act (Pylee, 1979). It gave a woman full ownership in the property inherited or acquired by her. Women inherit property equally with men now. The other important measures were the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, and Divorce Reform Act of 1969 (Pylee, 1979).
A family constitutes of the members who live together and share each other's ups and downs together. The members are bound together with the bond of blood relationship. Normally a family is made up with parents, grandparents, uncle, aunts, kids, and cousins. The concept of family is not a new one. Since the evolution of mankind, people live in groups in order to live together and share their feelings, joys and sorrows. It has been observed in recent years that the concept of family is being changed. The concept of joint family is being shifted towards the nuclear family where only the parents and the children are its members. There have been many cases which illustrates that the people who turn old are sent to the old age homes or are left alone in nuclear families. Although in this expensive world, it becomes difficult for a person to run a joint family. But on the other hand, this way of living life also has many drawbacks. Living in a nuclear family isn't a bad concept but one should never forget the parents and live with them respectively.