While urbanization has led to a rise in (parents and children), the joint family system remains a cornerstone of Indian culture.
In a narrow lane of Old Delhi, the Sharma family of five owns one scooter. Every morning, Mr. Sharma drops his two sons to school, then his wife to the tailoring shop, and finally rushes to his own job. In the evening, the scooter picks up grocery vegetables. On Sunday, it carries the entire family to the temple. When the elder son, Rohan, got into a prestigious engineering college, the family celebrated not with a party, but by re-financing the scooter loan to pay his fees. Rohan now designs electric vehicles. He says his first engineering lesson was learning how one 110cc engine could carry the weight of five dreams. While urbanization has led to a rise in
, many still maintain intense emotional and financial interdependency with their extended relatives. Hierarchy and Authority Sharma drops his two sons to school, then