Discuss the impact of legal reforms on family structures in India, with a focus on changes in inheritance laws, property rights, and marital legislations.

(1) Family structures: → Emergence of nuclear families due to promotion of Service sector jobs through LPG reforms. → Increasing gay and lesbian families after de-criminalisation of homosexuality by Supreme Court → Delayed Marriages and children due to educational and economic

Empowerment of women by government [Ex]: Beti Bachao Beti padao initiative → Increase in Single parent and Separate living families due to divorce rates as women became more legally empowered due to awareness.

(2) Inheritance Laws: → Acts like Hindu sucession acts, granted equal rights to women on inheritance of wealth and property

(3) Marital Legislations: → Acts like Hindu Marriage act promoted monogamy over the existing Polygamy. → In many cases, Supreme Court upheld the resitution of conjugal rights to strengten the marriage institution

→ Acts like Special marriage act, promoted inter-religious and inter-caste marriages over the existing norms of caste endogamy and religion endogamy

Sociological perspective

→ According to I.P. Desai, nuclear families are not completely nuclear as they are forming functional and substantial joint families

→ M.N. Srinivas, "westernisation" of institutions, ideas and values leed to acceptance of LGBTQ+ families.

→ Feminist sociologists like Uma Chakravarthy argue that even now religion and culture dominates over laws in Indian society. with respect to

Women empowerment.

→ According to Veena Das, legal reforms impacted different sections of society differently.

→ Some sociologists like R.K. Merton emphasised on understaning unintended latent dysfunctions of reforms such as kinship conflicts due to inheritance laws.