Answer to Question #159529 in Sociology for Ali Raza

Question

Currently, in our society the family values are declining and norms are getting weaker. How do you perceive the future of family institution/system in Pakistan? Discuss with examples especially keeping in view marriage, elderly and youth problems within the families

Answer 1

The family values and norms are declining and getting weaker by the day because of material condition that has been brought forward by industrial capitalist society. It is argued that industrial capitalist society has contributed a great deal to occupational mobility, geographical mobility as well as greater affluence and economic independence. This has proved to be a major contributing factor in the family institutions in Pakistan and any other part of the world today. The norms of the family are getting weaker because the current industrial capitalist society requires that both the husband-wife need to take a better part of the time attending to their jobs other than taking time with their families. As such, it is difficult for such parents in Pakistan to ensure that the previous family norms are upheld as they were in the past. Many of such families end up in a very different family institution where children and parents do not seem to understand one another and total disregard the tenets of family institutions such as love among others.

On the other hand, the lack of family value in modern Pakistan families has led to different challenges that people currently witness in the world. For instance, the Pakistan youth currently engross themselves in activities that show they lack the important teachings and training of their parents. There are several cases in which youths have been accused of beating up and sometimes end up killing their parents because they lacked important and crucial values of the family institution. Some have engaged themselves in drug trafficking and drug addiction because they lacked guidance at the initial stages when they were growing up. Be that as it may, they tend to believe what their peers tell them at that point in time more than the advices that their parents offer. When their parents try to restrain them from such activities they feel offended and some youths even move away from their homes.

Finally, in past, young people were obligated by the family values to take good care of the elderly. They were to ensure that their elderly parents are taken good care of and that they never lacked anything when they need. In return, the elderly offered excellent advice on different issues they come across in their lives. This has diminished due to the ever-changing world and the changing family structure brought about by the industrial capitalist society. The elderly are currently left with nobody to take good care of them. Others have resorted to taking the elderly to social care centers where they are taken care of by other people employed to take care of the elderly. This is not good since the other family members lose the important touch with their parents and grandparents, hence they are unable to learn important philosophies of life from the wisdom of their aging parents and grandparents. Such young people are too much engaged at work to the extent that they lack time to share with the elderly.