Neither Modern nor Traditional: The Recent History of the Indian Household

• In Event: 4411 - Causes and Consequences of Changing Family Structure

Abstract

In this paper, I reassess the century-old question of the nucleation of the Hindu Joint Household. First, I review the main concepts and indicators used to measure household change in India. Second, using data from India’s National Sample Survey, I examine national trends in household composition between 1983 and 2009. I find that the proportion of nuclear households increased only modestly during this period. However, over the same period, the proportion of stem and joint households as well as their headship patterns remained stable. I find no strong regional trend aside from south India’s lower proportion of stem and joint households. Conditional on age, urbanization and education have either a weak or negative association with household nucleation. Occupational diversification and the decline of farming have a strong positive association with household nucleation. However, contrary to theoretical predictions, nuclear households are more prevalent among less-educated workers than highly-educated professional urban classes.

Author

• Etienne Breton, Princeton University