Desirability and undesirability of joint family

Desirable element

• Economic burden is shared and thus providing economic security to the individual.
• Upbringing of children is better in a joint family as the elders faster desirable moral qualities in the individual.
• Joint families provides help in the management of the business
• Joint family provides social security to its members.

Undesirablility

• Hindrance for economic development.
• Joint family kills the individual initiative as the individual freedom is limited within the joint family. This can be seen at no. of levels , at the level of decision making and Income in the joint family is pooled.
• Inability of the individual to consume freely. Material benefits are to be seen in the context of the whole family.
• As joint family provides economic security to the person it produces lazy members and is responsible for lack of urgency.
• Joint family promotes the hereditary occupation and individually socialized in a particular environment which hinders the development of new entrepreneurial skills.
• Joint family also promotes wasteful expenditures on different ceremonies like marriage, death etc. On the contrary capitalism rests on the assumption that capital will not be consumed but reinserted. Present integrated joint family leads to wasteful expenditure.
• Joint family encourages capital accumulation, which is against the very idea of the economic development. Sometimes hinders the mobility of members.
• Status of women within a Joint Family is low as women play a less role in the decision making.Joint family encourages early marriages & so more children.

By: Rakesh Kumar Barik