CULTURE, EMPLOYMENT AND ADJUSTMENT TO WORKPLACE

Low Income Group
The poor still attach more importance to boys. Hence the size of the family gets determined by gender and not by number. This is partly because of lineage and partly for economic reasons. In India girls from traditional homes get married and go to live in their in-laws’ house. They are expected to completely give up their identity and merge with her husband’s family and play a subordinate role in the recipient family until she matures into a member of the new family after childbirth. Her claim as a member of the family is strengthened by her becoming the mother of her husband’s child. A male child is given all the privileges for self-development vis-à-vis a girl. When a son is born after many daughters, the sisters look after the brother who is provided with more privileges than the sisters. This importance is also given to the son in expectation of his contributing to the economic welfare of the family. While interviewing households to learn about child-rearing practices, this element of family structure emerged very strongly not only in the villages, but also among the low income groups in cities.

Migration from low-income families is mostly of boys and not of girls. The latter leaves home only after marriage. An emphasis is put on girls to learn domestic work and remain at home to help the mother in housework and bring up younger siblings. They are not sent to distantly located schools for education; whereas boys are sent to better schools away from home. They commute by public transport or bicycles to schools and colleges and are often expected to help the father with work outside home. Thus gender determines the role to be played, which has a massive impact on personality development. A girl is not exposed to the outside world like a boy and is expected to remain submissive and subordinate to the elders and the male members of the family.

When a girl moves out of her parental home into that of her in-laws, she is expected to adapt to the cultures of the recipient family. Whereas, when boys move out of home to work, they have to adjust to the culture of the workplace. In the case of a girl, adjustment is conditioned by the conduct and openness of the other members of the family. In the case of boys, the economic factor rules the roost. It has been found that adjustment is better when financial status is good, ie when a person is satisfied with the salary or earnings s/he is able to adjust better. But if financially unstable, emotional attachment to the family is stronger.

The poor who come to the city for work/livelihood stay with friends or kin from the same village or State as they can relate to each other. In India this is all the more common because of language differences of the States. They usually leave their conjugal family behind for want of adequate economic support in the city. It is universally known that living expenses in a city are more than that of the village. With part of the basic family living in the parental home or native place, the male earner is inclined to make frequent visits, whenever he gets a chance to go home, be it for festivals or in times of need, especially during illnesses.
For those who are economically sound, ie. the section that is able to reach the upper rungs of the ladder, the process of adjustment is easier, as they can afford to bring to the city their immediate family. For such families, aspirations change. They begin to appreciate the greater advantages of cities, especially higher education for their children. Parents with less education want their children to have better education than themselves and develop into professionals or earn higher salaries. They get attuned to city culture with a much more open mind and plan to settle down in the same city and adopt urban ways of living. Children of such parents grow up as urbanites and take advantage of the opportunities available in the city. These are then the long-term migrants who do not return to their native place and contribute to the urban human capital. Such people subsequently move from one city to another, instead of from the village to the city and back.

Traditions of the poor often become a burden on them, eg. gifts during marriages of relatives often become unaffordable. Yet they try to maintain such tradition for the sake of emotional support.


Middle Income Group
The middle income group mostly holds professionals. These could be either from the rural or urban areas. Primary data reveals that those who come from the village in search of a job/livelihood do not fall into this category. It normally includes people who come to the city for higher education and then stay back for jobs, as urban education changes their outlook towards life and they either become more ambitious or are unable to adjust back into the village. If they succeed in doing what they want to do, they adjust well both in their workplace, as well as to an urban way of life. But if their achievements fall short of their aspirations, they tend to get homesick or depressed and develop a sense of insecurity that goads them to return to their native place. But generally, urban living is so infectious, that very few want to return, except those who have left their families in the village to initially cope with the higher city expenses which they are unable to meet. Solvency makes people enjoy life and get adjusted to the workplace because of higher remunerations and to a city life when their purchasing power improves. It is then that extended families are formed with parents coming to stay with children working in the city. This is true for all the sub-categories of the middle income group.

The middle income group does not live away from their conjugal families, as it often happens with the poor, who are unable to afford a city life because of higher expenses. Hence there is no desire or attraction to go back to their parental home. Children from middle income groups of villages and small towns, on the contrary, try to settle down in larger cities to benefit from city opportunities and do well in life. Very often their aspirations and exposure to modern prospects open for them new avenues of work and living, leading to globalization, so that their next migratory move is to explore different countries of the world; so that while bonding with the immediate family remains, ties with distant relatives weaken, unless nurtured by their parents. In such cases the parents act as a link between tradition and modern. The family cultures that are instilled in the modern generation are mostly through parents and sometimes by grandparents in case of extended families. Under the circumstances family ties certainly get diluted despite retention of all middle class values and traditions of the Indian society.


Upper Income Group
This group is more mobile, both socially and physically. With enough money to fulfill all desires, the upper income group moves in and out of villages very easily and frequently. Initially they move out of their native place to study. Having done so, they stay back in cities, but keep visiting their ancestral home now and then during holidays. They maintain properties both in the city and the village. Cultivation of their agricultural land is done by hired managers and labour and they visit the village collectively with their families during festivals. These people become total urbanites and lead an urban way of life. They renovate their village homes for visits and establish themselves in their jobs or businesses in the city or even outside the country. The rich, therefore, adjust themselves very well, as it is mostly on their own terms and conditions. Hence even though they are migrants, adjustment to work and place is not an issue for them. Neither is migration an important element in their life.

Traditions that keep such families bound together are not for purposes of survival or economic support, but to distinguish themselves in their peer group. They hold their culture with pride and do not let it be a burden on them.

Summary
The poor often do not adjust well to the city and the workplace for want of better economic security. This calls for a social support to compensate for the shortcoming. They are frequently exploited in their workplace, whether rural or urban.

The middle income group adjusts well if they are economically sound and satisfied with their place of work. Though intense professionalism dilutes bonds, for want of time for interaction, they are happy with their place of work and compromise on family interaction and traditions for want of time.

The rich are their own masters. They adjust well wherever they go, as they do so on their own terms.

Acknowledgement
The write-up is based on primary data collected from 200 households of A.P., M.P. Bihar, Delhi and the NCR for an in-house research project of IWSB, in which the author is involved.