STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL CHANGES
Changes in the traditional Indian joint family:
According to Iravati Karve, a traditional Indian joint family is a group of people living under a common roof, who eat food cooked in a common hearth, hold property in common, participate in common worship, and are related to each other by some particular type of kinship.
The changes in the traditional Indian joint family can be analyzed at two levels.
Structure –
1. Only lineal jointness is visible instead of collateral.
2. The size of the traditional family has become smaller.
3. Small two-generation families instead of large houses.
Functions–
1. Due to industrialization and urbanization, married couples have set up residences in the place of their work as neo-local residences.
2. Families are only functionally joint now.
3. The traditional attitude towards the status of women is tending to change.
4. All members come together on the occasion of social and religious participation.
Hence, joint families are breaking up, and small families are coming to existence in their place. Though they might live separately or have separate kitchens in the main household, the family has also changed from working under a common authority to one where all this is simply obligatory.
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