Advantages of having a joint family

This is in reference to a letter titled 'Joint family reduces the stress on professionals' by Md. Salim Miah published on May 18, 2019 issue. The author pointed out the nature and difference between single and joint family systems in the context of Bangladesh.

What is considered a family varies in different cultures. In most of the European societies, the family is generally considered individualistic i.e. containing parents and their children. In Eastern culture, the definition of a family extends well beyond this.

In our society many joint families had flourished. Unfortunately global economic uncertainty and instability have had an impact on the system. Now, joint families (JF) are gradually disintegrating.

A JF can be considered as a milky way of grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters. The force of love between these people enables them to maintain the familial bond. They face any kind of problems faced by a single member of the family, head-on and together.

JFs provide members with the opportunity to serve their parents more effectively. By gradually going away from this system, our society is likely to lose out on familial bonds and cohesion.

It is a blessing for anyone to see his or her parents and elders whenever they desire. In the capital city, it's almost impossible to do social visits even on weekends now due to the traffic congestion. This is only possible if the parents live in the same building or in accommodations on the same street. We cannot have such blessings in individual or single family system.

Also, in JFs, a working woman does not need to worry about her children whom she leaves behind while going to work. She knows that they are under the supervision of experienced hands. This allows her to utilise her abilities in full and with confidence. On the other hand, in a single family system, she would have to leave her children in the care of maid servants or sometimes at day-care centres.

In such ways, joint families are better than single families. Those who are planning to split their families up because of the cost of living should reconsider.

Md Zillur Rahaman

Satish Sarker Road

Gandaria, Dhaka

zrbbbp@gmail.com