Problems of India’s Changing Family and State Intervention

A perusal of varied literature on Indian society and culture, particularly generated by ethnographers, historians, Christian missionaries and subsequently by anthropologists and sociologists, suggests that the twentieth century recorded certain changes of far reaching importance in the family system under the influence of westernization, industrialization, modernization and greater population mobility across the sub-continent. Ever since then the Indian family has progressively confronted and combated various kinds of problems and challenges, and yet India does not have any family policy per se so far; albeit the Government of India has indeed taken several useful legislative measures relating to widow remarriage, women’s right to property, practice of child marriage, succession, adoption and maintenance, dowry, dissolution of marriage affecting different communities and most recently domestic violence, which have impacted the Indian family system in more ways than one. It is, however, recognized that the formulation of a single national policy given the large size and heterogeneity of a society like that of India is really a difficult task. Barriers to the creation of a comprehensive national policy in India are intricate parts of Indian ethos and ideology. This is perhaps the important reason why India has not so far succeeded in evolving a common civil code despite public demand for it through various social and political fora in the recent past. Muslims, who comprise 12.4 percent of India’s population, are opposed to the idea of a uniform civil code in the country. Anyway, in order to do that one must have a reasonably good understanding of problems that the Indian society has been facing. Here we would like to throw some light on the major problems that confront the Indian society in general and a family in particular. It is really imperative that one should understand the hurdles in promoting social protection and intergenerational solidarity for the well being of family as a social sub-system.