New Delhi: Claiming the “Bharatiya family system” is a “unique contribution to humanity”, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Saturday said the increasing influence of “materialist mindset” is responsible for “unchecked desires and greed, stress and divorce”.
In a resolution passed at the three-day Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) — its top policy making body — in Gwalior, the Sangh said with time “distortions and rigidity have crept in our society” which need to be uprooted.
It urged the government, eminent personalities, saints, media as well as various organisations to work towards “strengthening” the institution of family.
“Family system is the precious contribution of our society to the humanity. Due to its uniqueness, Hindu family functions as the basic unit which connects individual to the nation,” said the resolution passed Saturday.
“The ABPS is of the firm opinion that there is a need for comprehensive and immense efforts to sustain the lively and value-based nature of our family system,” said the resolution.
RSS is the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“These days, our family system that epitomises the sacred cultural heritage seems to be disintegrating. The principle reasons for the breakup of the family system are the increasing influence of materialist mindset and self-centeredness,” the resolution said.
“Due to the materialistic thinking, the problems of self-centered and acrid behavior, unchecked desires and greed, stress, divorce etc. are on the rise,” it added.
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‘Family life’
Expressing displeasure at the concept of joint families making way for nuclear ones, the RSS said children are sent to hostels at young age and the “absence of emotional security” causes children to be lonely, leading to “drug addiction, violence, heinous crimes and suicides”.
In fact, to ensure a happy family life, the Sangh even has a prescription.
“The family life will be joyous and blissful through dining, praying, celebrating festivals and going on pilgrimage together, the use of mother tongue, insistence on Swadeshi and, nourishing and protecting family and social traditions,” the RSS said.
It added that “encouraging donations for social, religious and educational cause and readiness to help the needy will instill the sense of social responsibility”.
Talking about “distortions and rigidity that have crept in”, the Sangh pointed to practices like “dowry, untouchability and discrimination, ostentatious and extravagant spending, superstitions etc” that are “creating obstacles in the all round development of the society”.
“The ABPS calls upon the entire society, starting from our own families, to make efforts in uprooting these evils and shortcomings and work towards establishing a value based and harmonious society,” said the resolution.
Calling upon “eminent personalities” to make films and programmes that will “strengthen the roots of the family system”, the ABPS urged “all governments to constructively consider the need for strengthening the family system while formulating the education policy and making family related legislations”.
Doling out advice to those “forced to stay in nuclear families due to the circumstantial compulsions”, the Sangh said they “should keep their contacts alive with the ancestral family and spend some time with them collectively on regular intervals”.
“Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha calls upon the entire society, including the swayamsevaks, especially the young generation, to take all necessary steps to make the invaluable family system more lively, vibrant, and value-oriented,” the resolution concluded.
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