How important is the institution of a family in a person's life, and how is it changing?
Kashyap: A strong family leads to a strong community which leads a strong nation. No matter how advanced you become, you still are a family. We are becoming increasingly individualistic but we still need a family structure around us and it is important to strengthen it. The stress of urban life and competition is making families vulnerable, especially the ones from a low economic status.
Xia: A family is the foundation for a healthy and happy life, and if children have a stable structured life where they are supported and cared for, it predicts their success in the future.
What are the challenges that families face today?
Xia: The biggest challenge for an urban modern family is stress because of work. Either work is demanding or difficult to find, and if found, then there's the stress of keeping it secure. It reflects at home and how families and individuals deal with it matters.
Kashyap: Children earlier were socialised within the family but are now socialised by the media and the Internet. There are so many factors — social, economic, political, technological and health — that impinge on a family structure from all sides. It makes families vulnerable to breakdown in these globalised times.
What changes to do you see in the way people perform their traditional family roles today?
Kashyap: We did not have old-age homes 10 years ago, but they are becoming a norm now because of lack of space and economic status in urban houses. Children are increasingly reluctant to take care of aging parents with the additional stress of daily life.
Xia: Even in China, children are expected to look after their aging parents but that's changing there too. There are also families where grandparents babysit their grandchildren or provide financial support to their kids in these hard times.
What about women's roles?
Xia: Traditionally, it is considered that women take care of the household and children but their contribution towards finance is not acknowledged. Their work, which runs into millions of dollars, is not considered as a contribution to society.
Kashyap: We are seeing an increase in the number of single working parents because women now don't want to be the only ones adjusting in a relationship. There are families headed by women nowadays. They feel that all responsibilities, including parenting, should be equally shared by both partners. And yet, one in three US women face domestic violence, so it's a myth that only poor countries or India see violence against women.
