The recent years have seen tremendous change in the economic set-up of nations, which also impacted the family structure around the world.
The institution of family, which is the foundation of an individual, is diversifying with time, with there now being double income homes with no kids (called DINKs), same sex or LGBT families, and digital families.
The centre for social work at TISS, in association with the Global Consortium for International Family studies (GCIFS), held an international conference titled 'Changing World-Changing Families: Diversity and Synergy' from January 4 to 6.
Speaking about the conference's theme, TISS professor Devi Prasad said through the lectures and discussion he found that there is great variation in the types of families that exist today. "We are addressing multiple facets of diverse families. We have seen that marriage as an institution is losing its popularity in Scandinavian and western countries. The presence of technology is impacting families on a universal level and the social pressures women face for child-free marriages in India and the West are completely different. There are single-parent families, co-habiting and non-marital families, and queer and same-sex families, but the Indian context hasn't been studied much," he added.
Prasad also said family studies have been very conventional — in the 1960s, the joint family system was said to be a norm, but 70% families then were nuclear too. "Even back then, we never had just joint patriarchal family structures. We had diverse families with matrilineal structure in the Northeast. The third gender was not even accounted for. An upper caste Brahminical family is considered the national family in sociological studies from then," he said.
Professor Penny Crofts from the University of Newcastle, Australia, was present to chair the session on synergistic interactions between media, technology and families, and said the need to establish family studies in all countries was important. "There's been a record economic change in the world, and families need to have the capacity to fulfil their role in society. With studies and research we can help the government and community to support and develop policies and practices,"she said.
GCIFS includes University of Newcastle, Australia, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, and TISS.
Lectures on historical development and trends in India, besides research on families living with schizophrenia and mental health issues, took place on Day 1 of the conference, whereas Day 2 saw talks on families of choice, where people chose their own families besides the biological ones they were born in, for example, queer couples and Hijra communities.
It also saw talks on families living in the digital society and the impact of media on families, where one of the panelists, Sadhana Deshmukh, presented a study of parenting styles amongst couples working in the IT sector in Nashik and Pune. Her study found that 100% of the couples in the research became parents by their own right and 88% gave digital devices to their children after age six.
Stats
38% Swedish families have single-parent households
12% Indian families are headed by women, as per census of 2011.
48% women in India are subject to all kinds of violence, according to the National Family Health survey.
50% Indian children live with extended family or an adult besides their parents (World Family Map Survey, 2013).
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