04-11-2016, 03:30 PM
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A family when lives together with all family members up to 2nd generation like grand parents, parents, uncle, aunts and their children is called a joint family. The importance of Joint family is understood by the Indians since time immemorial.But while young people are going advanced with their lifestyles, they are shy away from living jointly with their parents and grandparents. These people are usually missed a lot of fun, caring, elder guidance from time to time which causes a lot of problems in the future like loneliness, frustrations, etc.
The importance and value of Joint Family is described below:
1. In the joint family, all members are equally sharing all expenses, works and other things with the other members of the family so the burden of work will not be felt by any single person.
2. All children get equal share of love, care, guidance and education by the elder grandparents so that they never miss anything in their whole life. Similarly they can also easily get help from their parents.
3. Small children will get teaching guidance from their uncle, aunts, and other family members. The sharing resources with the cousins and sisters help parents to minimize the expenses on their child.
4. On the eve of big occasions like marriage, birthdays, engagements, anniversaries etc., the whole work can easily be shared with all members so that the event will be successful. This will bring down the burden from the parents
Merits of Joint Family System:
The joint family system has persisted in India through the Vedic age to the present day. Many advantages can be attributed to joint living in the Hindu family. Some of the advantages of joint family system may be discussed below.
1. Division of Labour:
Joint family secures the advantages of division of labour. Here the work is distributed among the members on the basis of age and sex. Every member in the family is given work according to his abilities. Every phase of family’s life is managed by all members including women and children.
2. Economy in Expenditure:
A joint family avoids the unnecessary expenditure of separate house-hold establishment. Savings are possible in the joint family since the household purchases are done jointly. As joint family requires large quantities of commodities for its consumption, they can be purchased at a time at lower prices and thereby money can be saved.
3. Protection from Division of Land:
Another important function of the joint family system has been the protection from division of family property on land holdings. Fragmentation and division of land holdings has been responsible for the small output of agricultural products as we find them today. But the joint family system held the property in common and as a result of this the economic utility of joint holdings was much higher than it is today.
Demerits of Joint Family System:
Any social institution comes into existence around a cluster of useful activities and we find that the joint family system performed some very useful functions. But, with the passage of time and due to socio- economic changes, the original advantages of the joint family system started decreasing and many demerits of the system emerged. The main demerits of joint family system may be mentioned as below.
1. Home for Idlers:
Joint family is a home for idlers. Since all the members are assured of their basic necessities of life, many members do not take interest to earn their livelihood. When a person can eat comfortably without exerting himself, he is unlikely to indulge in any strenuous activity.
2. Retards the Development of Personality:
In joint family there is very little opportunity for the fostering of individual autonomy or self-dependence. The whole environment of the family is not congenial for the growth of individual because he is bound by the minutest rules and regulations framed by the head of the family who looks upon men and women as children even when they attain adulthood.
3. Luck of Initiative for Hard work:
In a joint family, all the members are required to pool their earnings into a common fund and everyone of the family has an equal share in this fund irrespective of his earning capacity. As such, there is no correspondence between one’s efforts and his reward. As a result a member, even if he is capable of doing hard work, does not do so. Because he knows that he is capable of doing hard work, does not do so. Because he knows that he is neither going to get all the benefits of his neither hard work nor he is going to be rewarded for his hard work.