Changing Role of Family In the Modern Society

Courtesy – http://www.pravakta.com

Sometime back I was sitting with some friends, and discussing the current situation of society. After some time the plight of senior citizens became the prime subject of the discussion. Everybody was sharing his own experiences and analyzing them subjectively. One of them narrated a story about a financially and socially well-off family. There were husband and wife and two school-going children in that family. The children had a fading memory of their grandparents. Whenever children asked about their grandparents, they were told by their parents that, they are in the ancestral house in the village, because they feel more comfortable over there.

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Once, the school carries out a program to take the students for a visit to some old age home. Both the children were also a member of this visiting group of students. When they visited the old age home, they found their grandparents over there. They were so awe-struck by the situation. They could not believe that their parents could treat their parents like that. So, humanity has sunk deep in the unfathomable ocean of this mirage of the development and glamour of pseudo quality of life. Humanity has got engulfed in the smog of over consumerism, infinite possessiveness, increasing competition, and fake self-righteousness. 

Humanity means family values, sensitivity, ethics of life, compassion, generosity, tolerance, unconditional love, affection, and sacrifice. Being a human is possible only, with and within  THE FAMILY. Many years ago, Abraham Maslow created a diagram called the “Hierarchy of Needs by Humans”. This hierarchy explained, which needs were most crucial to humans. Meeting the basic needs of those people, who can’t provide them to themselves was the most critical challenge. It includes newly born infants to minors, the elderly to disabled, and simply those who can’t afford to live by themselves. The basic social unit called the family is tasked with meeting the minimum needs, such as food, water, shelter, and clean air.

These things can be provided to the entire family,  by one member or more members in the family. On the next level are the security needs, followed by concern, love, belongingness, and self-dignity. In a family, the members spent so much time together, that they support each other emotionally, financially, and in all the possible ways, whether the situation is normal or difficult, favorable or adverse. It could be possible only, because of the bonding created and nurtured since the time, each of them, became a part of the family. 

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Our lives are always guided by our social structures. The social structure of a society is a complex system, whose parts work together and in tandem to promote solidarity and stability to it. The family has both, the structure and the function, like the skeleton, muscles, and organs in the body. The structure is what gives a family its size and shape. Senior and productive member are like organs within the body, that performs necessary functions to keep the body alive. Growing members are like the muscles, which give a better shape to the body. The family as a social institution has been evolving, since its creation. It is always changing in respect of its shape, structure, as well as the associated and inherited functions, clubbed with responsibilities. 

Family structures of some kind or the other are found in every society. No matter how many variations one finds among people of different cultures, all societies have some form of family or the other. Even some lower animals have social systems, that are somewhat akin to the human family system. But is also a fact that, family is not a universal system. It’s a mere creation and development in a stage of evolution of the society. Therefore it may not be enduring or everlasting. 

India is unique with a rich and ancient history and with one of the oldest yet dynamic cultures. Indian society is defined by its joint family system. In India as in many traditional societies, the family has been the center of social life and the primary source of the support system of all the family members. If there’s one cohesive emerging force at the heart of traditional Indian society, a single powerful strand, which for centuries has woven the tapestry of our rich and stable social fabric, replete with diversity into a whole, it is only our family system. We are too much of a collective society to be seen as individuals. 

In the modern world, this is replaced by the nuclear family system, leading to more individualism. As the nuclear family system has gained more traction, the percentage of “COUPLE ONLY” families has increased. With the advent of the British in India, a process of industrialization started. It affected Indian social and economic life. The geographical mobility of some of the members of the joint family has affected the traditional structure of the joint family. Urbanization and blind following of western cultural values are causing more nuclearisation. 

Finally, parents are the first and most important teachers in everyone’s life. The importance of family starts at birth and stays constant throughout life.

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A strong family is a source for much more than just the basic needs of life. A family is the bedrock of our existence, maintenance, and sustenance. It provides us not only the basic needs of life, rather the much-required compassion, love, and self-dignity which are so intrinsic for every one of us.

Development is the essence of life. But the spread of individualism in the name of Liberty, development in the name of materialism, and ultra display of possessions in the name of richness are not good for the growth of a healthy society. 

Tags: #affection, #children, #family, #generosity, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #home, #sacrifice, #seniorcitizens, #society, #tolerance, #unconditionallove, #village, compassion