CRUMBLING WALLS OF
FAMILIES
JAGJIT SINGH
From the time immemorial, family has been considered as the basic unit of any and every society. As such, it provides a natural framework in which individuals receive emotional, spiritual and material nourishment and support that is vital for their development- physical as well as mental. It is within the family that children learn the first lesson of equality, tolerance and shared responsibility. The
familial work is ultimately extended to the broader community, which ultimately lays the foundation for
social integration and the enhancement of social cohesion.
Unfortunately, Social changes such as an increased rate of divorce and single-parenting, increased life expectancy, smaller size households and delayed marriages and childbearing has cast its shadow on the families and familial
relations in every part of the world. Additionally, external factors such war, natural disasters, famine, environmental degradation, natural disasters, famine, unemployment, drug addiction, crime and diseases such as HIV/AIDS are putting heavy burden on the already fragile familial system. Families are breaking like glassy cups on trivial issues. They are disintegrating.
Human love, affection, compassion, sensitivity, accommodativeness and tolerance are vanishing and are being substituted by ego, indifference, cruelty, confrontation, intolerance and snobbery.
A strong paradoxical situation exists in the present era of communication revolution and information technology. While geographical distances and global political differences on ticklish issues are narrowing down, out societal and familial gaps and differences, on the other hand, are ever widening.
The man, in pursuance of his career and commercial interests, is joining hands with the outer world and establishing new relationships. But in that process, he is, gradually breaking away from the inner world, his own family, and his own community. While many families have been empowered and benefited by global integration, others have suffered economically and emotionally and are trying to cope with a rapidly changing situation. In developed and developing countries there is a concern about changing family structures and a possible decline in volunteer activity for those in need.
Warmness of relationships is vanishing fast. Even the blood relations are increasingly getting formalized. The age-old joint family system where elders’ writ reigned supreme, is crumbling and is being replaced by nuclear families in which elders find themselves neglected and even sometimes humiliated that too at the hand of their own children whom they nurtured with their blood and sweat..
Technologically and scientifically, the world has been unexpectedly much fast forward, making giant leaps. But at the social, familial and human relations’ level, it seems to be unprecedentedly backward for multiple
reasons such as quest to get more at the cost of human relations and values, hypocrisy to look modern by abandoning everything old, whether it is customs, commodities or even close relations.
Thanks to the ever increasing consumer culture, while our aspirations and needs are skyrocketing, the human relations are shrinking. With the ever increasing flat culture in
cities, the foundation of socialization has weakened and is getting weak constantly.
Till the TV mania had not gripped our metropolitan cities, even in cosmopolitan cities, like New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, etc. social life was alive. Especially evening hours used to be the time and an occasion of small and local gatherings and exchange pleasantries. In mohalla parks, groups of chattering women, kids playing hide and seek and gossiping men used to be a common sight in almost every colony. It not only helped to refresh the tired mind and body, but also represented a rare example of social harmony.
Reasons for this are not difficult to trace. Our needs during those days were very limited. Basic commodities essential for life were not as costly and inaccessible as today. Hence, people hardly felt any need or had the greed to earn extra. Besides, markets in the past were not flooded with gaudy, luxurious consumer goods attracting and alluring the innocent minds.
Therefore, there was no question of ‘working overtime’ or going for ‘working partner’ in marital alliance in order to ensure accessibility to these items. It is precisely due to these reasons that one’s sociality remained intact. But, first with the advent of TV and then cable and satellite channels, our lifestyle and priorities changed completely.
There can't be any disagreement or difference of opinion that ‘progress’ and ‘change’ are two basic fundamentals of life. But in this unmindful race to achieve these two ‘basics’, what and how much important and valuable we have left behind, how much precious we have lost to gain more, we hardly seem to analyze.
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