The Great Indian Family, a movie touted as a celebration of the spirit of Indian joint families, was a bomb at the box office.
Released a year ago, in September 2023, it garnered a rating of 5.6 on IMDb, despite a star lead in the form of Vicky Kaushal (who had two hits that year: Sam Bahadur and Uri – The Surgical Strike). There was a time when theatres across India’s cities would have filled up to watch the story of a devout young Hindu man who discovers he is a Muslim by birth, and must now rethink his ideas of identity, community, family. Instead, the film sank without a trace.
I couldn’t help thinking that a key reason for this is that large joint-family stories like this one simply do not resonate in our cities any more, because there are fewer and fewer large joint families out there. Instead, what we have is the nuclear unit.
The term “nuclear family” is 100 years old this year. Its earliest recorded use was in a 1924 study by Polish-British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. Other terms for this unit of parents and their children living in one home include “elementary family”, ”atomic family” and “cereal packet family”.
According to a 2023 Consumer Connection Report by Kantar, nearly 50% of all households in India are now nuclear, a steep increase from the 37% recorded in 2008.
In the southern states, the share of nuclear families stands at 69%, up from 50% in 2008. It is 49% in western India, 45% in the eastern states and 38% in the northern states.
Meanwhile, on average three fourth all new homes in both private and government-funded realty projects, over the past 14 years, have been designed for nuclear families, the report states.
The average number of people per household has fallen too, to 4.2 people in the average urban household and 4.5 people in a rural household, per the National Family Health Survey 2019-21. The average size of an Indian household has shrunk from 4.6 to 4.4 in the period 2015-16 to 2019-21.
If we compare Indian household structures to that of the US, we see where we may be headed, over the next 50 years or so.
In 1960, based on US Census data, 85% of all households were inhabited by families, with 44% of these consisting of married couple with children, and 31% consisting of married couples without children. The balance was composed of single parents with children and other family with children.
By 2017, the share of homes inhabited by families had dropped to 65%. Of these, only 19% were couples with children; and 30% were couples without children. The balance as before were single parent with children / non-family with children.
More than 30% of US households in 2017 were made up of what are termed “non-family” inhabitants, which typically includes single people, flatmates, and unmarried couples.
That’s twice as many non-family homes as in 1960.
It’s no wonder the TV series Modern Family (2009-20) was a big hit, reflecting the changing family structures in the US.
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I wondered, as I conducted my research for this story, whether this shift toward nuclear families would be visible even in smaller samples in India.
So I did a little experiment. I asked two questions to my class of 50 at SPJIMR the business school where I teach: When you were young (under the age of 10) what was the composition of your home; was it a nuclear or joint family? What was the composition of your home at the age of 20?
I gathered some interesting data. Almost 40% of the class had lived in nuclear family units 15 years ago. And 54% of them lived in nuclear families today.
Another question occurred to me at this point, triggered by something I had come across during home visits and consumer research a decade ago. One quote in particular had stayed with me. Asked if she lived with her in-laws, a young woman had replied: “Hum saath saath khaate hain, lekin choolah alag chalta hai (We eat together, but our kitchens are run separately).” I turned to my class again. Almost 20% of my students — and 40% of those living in nuclear homes — said their grandparents lived nearby, sometimes in the same building, sometimes on the next street, sometimes in the flat next door.
Does this call for a new categorisation of households? Should we be viewing these as
an Indian innovation: the Hybrid Nuclear Family? After all, as in a joint family, the grandparents are close enough to provide vital childcare, and to seek help themselves when it is needed.
The growth of these nuclear and hybrid nuclear families have many interesting marketing ramifications. One is the significant increase in demand for new dwelling units. In fact, some builders are capitalising on the hybrid nuclear family concept by creating multi-storey residential buildings made up of only one-bedroom apartments. In one such case I was told that most of the flats were bought by people living in the same area, looking to provide an independent home for their soon-to-be-married son or daughter, so that they can live nearby.
When new homes are created, there is demand for numerous products and services. New homes need new furniture, durables, appliances and so much more. There is a need to outsource services, from cooking to grocery-shopping and pre-Diwali deep cleaning.
There simply isn’t the time, and with higher disposable incomes and less policing (especially for the women), there often isn’t the inclination either.
Cooking becomes a hobby, doorstep services include those of a beautician and masseuse.
Nuclear family units, housing young couples with children or old couples without, become a boon for marketers. From travel and leisure to sofas and dining tables, the change in format is visible in the pervasive “rule of four”.
We should expect to see more of this in the coming decade. Perhaps my coinage, of “hybrid nuclear” will catch on too, replacing the Great Indian Joint Family.
Appeared originally in Hindustan Times Sept 2024