Joint Family, Complete English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 12 and Graduate Students Exam.

Joint Family

Families living in the urban areas of India can be called “modern” families. In the years bygone, the scene of a typical Indian family was quite different from what we witness today. In the old days, the family was structured differently. The joint family system was still in existence. The joint family had an old couple at the head and the children would live with this couple along with their own families. Thus in an average family, there would be anything between fifteen to twenty members. There would be many children in each family and all these families would live together under the same roof. The incomes of all the members would be divided equally and the head of the family would be the treasurer. He would keep an account of each member’s expense and every member of the family would be answerable to the father who is placed at the head. Every religious or social function would be performed by the head of the family and all the children would be expected to attend the function and in fact, actively participate in it. There would be a lot of sharing and the children in these families would be never in need of friends. Their own cousins would be their playmates and in the absence of their parents, their aunts and uncles would take care of them. The modern family is the opposite of this. The nuclear family is one in which a couple lives alone with only their own children. These families are smaller and all the responsibility of raising children lies on the shoulders of the parents. Grandparents live separately and children are often left with maidservants in the absence of the parents. Most women work these days and this leaves a modern Indian family quite a shrunk family. Although there may be more in terms of material there is less company and security for each member of a modern Indian family. It may be no surprise to see Indians reverting to the old system of living together with brothers, sisters, and parents thus making the society more secure and the ties of home and family much stronger.