Institution Of Family Is Crumbling

Now and then, I come across families that were happy once but now yearning for cooperation and love. In this way, family assumes importance in shaping the personality of an individual. Without family, it is impossible that a true personality is made. Family has a long history. That is why its importance has never been underestimated. After wandering for thousands of years, a man settled at a place and began to live a social life.

      The man keep embarking on this path for quite a long time. But suddenly this journey came to halt. The family system lost its way somewhere. It was not like a bolt from the blue. It was the rot of many decades that came to the surface. There are many causes responsible for this. So, let us know some of them.

      First is mad race for materialism. The lust for money has made it possible that the institution of family is destroyed. In the past, a single member used to earn while others used to eat and live. However, in the present, when the conditions have become awry, the members who don’t earn, are looked down upon. They are humiliated. They, if being intellectually efficient, are sidelined because they don’t have money in their pockets. In this way, the bond of love and affection becomes the soft target of materialism. The result is that the happy-living families are disintegrated into number of nuclear families. Second is imitation has become the order of the day. We follow others . In movies and dramas, we come across people abandoning the joint families and preferring to live in the nuclear families. In this way, the structure of the joint families crumbles every day. Third is modern age. Modern age has provided us with every comfort. Diseases are cured but it has given rise to a different type of division of labor. Now both a father and a mother go to work. Children are sent to schools. New lifestyle has become common everywhere. In this way, a nuclear family is preferred to a joint family. Fourth is the old are a burden. They are only fed and washed. In this way, the joint family systems are broken into many nuclear families. The old parents, who have nurtured their children in the best possible manner, are thrown out . In our village, a mother has become a burden for two sons. She has been living with her daughter for two years. It is a collective shame for us. She says,” I did what I could for my children, particularly the two sons. Now, they don’t want me. They call me a useless burden. My basic needs are unfulfilled. I crave for my sons' faces. They hardly come to me. They want me to die. I am fed up with this life. I want to die. I cannot tolerate this humiliation.” Fifth is lack of counsellors, who can teach those persons who always are ready to live in a nuclear family. If they had been here, I think the situation would not have come to such impasse. At the time of intense conflicts in a family, anger and revenge prevail. After some time, there is only regret. In this situation, expert counsellors can prove fruitful. They can advise them that it is bad to split into a number of families over petty issues. Sixth and last is we have lost touch with the actual world. As we have not been able to understand the real motive of life, we feel suffocated. We are misfits in a society. we don’t want anyone to come near to us. We want to live in isolation. In this manner, the whole concept of family has come to standstill. 

      Let us hope that the family system in particular and the joint family system in general is revived. We are social human beings. We should live side by side. Living in a society is beneficial. Let us ponder over it. 

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