Why are attitudes changing and families breaking apart?
In the materialistic era, the competition for comforts has scorched the relationships.
By: Dr. Satywan Saurabh
Today, there is a strong need for everyone to think about family values and family as an institution, and at the same time, there is a need to find out the reasons for the decline of these values and correct them. For this, we should think about the implications of the decline of the family as an institution. There should be discussion in open forums as to what is the reason for this decline and how can we emerge from this?
Family, in Indian society, is an institution in itself and has been a distinctive symbol of India’s collective culture since ancient times. The joint family system or an extended family was an important feature of Indian culture until a mix of urbanization and Western influence began to shake that institution. Family is a basic and important social institution that has a vital role in influencing individual as well as collective morality. The family nurtures and preserves cultural and social values.
It provides stability to society by encouraging law-abiding citizens. It helps in building collective consciousness in the individual. The family system is a single, powerful strand that has been around for centuries and is rich with diversity, strengthening the social fabric. It is the major source of emotional connection in socialization, shaping the sense of right and wrong in the way of socialization and morality.
Children are seen as making moral decisions according to the “social conventions” of their parents, their peers, and their society. It strengthens individual character. It is the first source of forming habits like discipline, respect, obedience, etc.
Along with moral strength, it provides the flexibility to rely on the person’s family members, and relatives in difficult times without any hesitation. It avoids the use of unethical means to deal with difficulties. Family helps people to develop a woman’s perspective towards worldly problems. But in the present times, we are facing the bitter experience of decline in the family as an institution.
Today, as a symbol of decline, families are disintegrating, marital relations are breaking, hostility among brothers and legal and social disputes have increased in all types of relationships. Today, individualism has prevailed over collectivism. Due to this, the materially oriented, competitive, and highly aspirational generation is losing patience with the so-called complex family structures. Just as individualism has claimed rights and freedom of choice,it has forced generations to see the sense of achievement in life only from the perspective of material prosperity.
In the present situation, an inflammatory attitude is the main reason for the disintegration of families. Higher income and less responsibility to other family members have divided extended families. The high divorce rate is undoubtedly eating away at social relationships. The major reason for the breakdown of marriage is the technology black spot in the individual’s attitude, behavior, and compromised values.
The anti-social behavior of the younger generation is rapidly destroying families. Most of today’s social functions, such as child rearing, education, vocational training, elderly care, etc., are taken over by outside agencies, such as crèches, media, nursery schools, hospitals, vocational training centers, and hospice institutions as contractors.
The decline of the family institution has created obstacles in our emotional relationships. The unifying bond in a family is mutual affection and ties by blood. A family is a closed unit that keeps us together because of emotional ties. Moral degradation is a major factor in the breakdown of families as they fail to inculcate in children a sense of self-respect and respect for others.
Today, socio-economic cooperation and assistance have been wiped out due to the blind race for power and money. Families have become limited to the financial and material support required for the growth and development of their members, especially infants, and children; to the care of other dependents, including the elderly, we are witnessing the decline of an inefficient and debilitated family system. Listen and see things when they need the utmost care and love.Today most people are suffering from a lack of meaningful life.
One of the disadvantages of the decline of the family system is the diminishing of the qualities of sharing, caring, sympathy, cooperation, honesty, listening, welcoming, recognition, consideration, sympathy, and understanding. Mental health issues like reduced stress tolerance, anxiety, and depression are on the rise in recent times. The family system can mentally relieve the person from the expression of deep insecurities by talking to elderly members, playing with children, etc. The breakdown in the family system can create cases of mental health issues for more individuals. In the future, the decline of the family as an institution will bring structural changes in society.
Family is a very fluid social institution and is in a process of constant change. Modernity is witnessing the emergence of a greater share of same-sex couples (LGBT relationships), cohabitation or live-in relationships, single-parent households, living alone or with their children, and divorce. Such families do not necessarily function as traditional kinship groups and may not prove to be good institutions for socialization. In the materialistic era, competition for each other’s comforts and luxuries has scorched the relationships of the mind.
We have to think and understand that if we want to live a meaningful life, then we have to understand the importance of family and leave aside mutual disputes and stand with the family, only then we will be able to survive and this society will be worth living.
Kashmir Images is an English language daily newspaper published from Srinagar (J&K), India. The newspaper is one of the largest circulated English dailies of Kashmir and its hard copies reach every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley besides Jammu and Ladakh region.
