"How much 'joint' are our joint households? what is the process of adjustment in our family system, particularly in the context of present-day social, political, economic and demographic changes? are all the segments of the society uniformly affected by these changes? is the structural jointness of the households being replaced by solidarity at the functional level? then, what is meant by functional solidarity? how do the nuclear households maintain ties with their families of origin? in the present inquiry an attempt has been made to answer these questions with the help of the evidences culled from the experiences, expectations, opinions and feelings of women living in different types of household structures located in both rural and urban settings. The analysis of empirical facts and figures has been done in the background of the critical understanding of the conceptual and theoretical issues related to Indian family system. The book will be equally useful for researchers and students of sociology and anthropology."