Erosion of the Traditional Indian Family [UPSC Notes]

The International Day of Families was celebrated on May 15.  The family has been a foundational institution of society in most parts of the world, particularly in India. It is an institution where consolidation of interpersonal relations naturally evolved while living under one roof, sharing thought processes, participating in collective actions and developing emotional bondings. This is an important topic for the IAS exam.

Erosion of the Traditional Indian Family: 

• Rise of individualism within the family is the leading cause for erosion of emotional bonds and supportive endeavors. 
• In the absence of sharing, a certain amount of opaqueness increasingly marks interpersonal relations within families. 
• The overstretching of ideas of privacy and private space, erosion of mutual trust and confidence has become the order of the day.
  • Evaporation of mutuality has adversely impacted togetherness. Diminishing togetherness prevents occasions to gather insights about each other.
• Many of the family systems are breaking up and giving rise to nuclear families and thus the idea of kinship is being limited to one or two generations. 
• The idea of freedom has led to rise in the number of the nuclear family where the role of grandparents have diminished and deteriorated. 

Outcomes of depleting family system: 

• There has been rising number of suicides and drug addicts in the family. These suicides arises as a result of deterorating role of the family in the life of individual. When a person is well integrated into the family system it acts as a shock absorber and thus reduces tensions. 
• Rise in the incidences of divorce are gaining traction these days. This type of incident arises due to lack of understanding between the male and the female partners. 
• Erosion of kinship system exposes the family members to various types of societal evils like gambling, and thus convert a person to antisocial person. 

Conclusion: Family is the social institution which has kept our society united and integrated. Therefore effort must be made to protect this institution from getting eroded. 

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