Expressing concern about the vanishing of the joint family system and parents in nuclear families not spending quality time with their kids and instead handing over gadgets to keep them busy, Supreme Court Thursday said that it would lead to “disaster” as the new generation would be unaware of family bonding and relationships.While analysing the reasons behind recent incidents of people killing spouses, including the case of Sonam Raghuvanshi, a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale said that it was a reflection of changing society. It said that the present generation is more intelligent and informative, but it does not know how to deal with pressure. The court said that it is unfortunate that people nowadays rely on WhatsApp-circulated messages and treat them as knowledge. Agreeing with the court’s concern, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said that it has become a social problem and trust in human relationships is diminishing and there is a lack of tolerance.Justice Sundresh said that he was recently in a restaurant and he saw that a family gave a phone to a kid in order to keep him busy while they were having food. “If parents are replaced by gadgets, then it is a disaster. It is going to happen more in future. Joint family is an asset, and people don’t understand it. Happiness does not come with material possession but by human bonding and relationship. We are becoming like machines,” he said.
