Though the joint/extended family system which kept families together as socio-economic units lingers on among our SURTI SUNNI VOHRAS it is no longer valued by our people. We feel respect for each other and especially respect for the older members of families was an important ingredient of our joint/extended family system. Once our people started losing respect for our older family members our joint/extended family system found it difficult to continue playing its role.
            For us Muslims the joint/extended family was much more than a socio-economic unit. The joint/extended family gave its older and younger members the opportunity to live together and gave the younger members opportunities to care for their older members which for us Muslims has always been a religious requirement. Unfortunately for us we SURTI SUNNI VOHRAS became victims of modern trends. Our religious education and religious awareness did not deter us as we found ways to discard our joint/extended family system. We feel, whilst we knew of the importance placed upon us by our religion about caring for our older family members we simply could not avoid succumbing to the changes taking place around us.
            We feel, and our readers will agree with us that in the absence of a functioning joint/extended family system our older family members, our physically/mentally weak family members and the family's divorced and widowed women in many cases fail to get the attention, care and respect they should be entitled to receive as family members. Our children too are losing out from the absence of a functioning joint/extended family. From the older family members, the younger family members had many opportunities to learn of their family history, learn the history of their villages, learn about the family's traditional occupation, learn about the SURTI SUNNI VOHRA culture, learn about their relatives, learn to use appropriate kinship terminologies for their relatives and as members of a joint family learn to respect one another and seek advice, support and guidance when needed.  
            We feel, as Muslims we should strive to get the joint/extended family system to make a comeback. This will hopefully allow us to comply with what ALLAH THE ALMIGHTY expects of us as Muslims. Before the joint/extended family makes a comeback, we feel we should try to find ways to keep family members together so that our older members as well as our physically/mentally weak members could be taken care of. 
Some years ago, our VOHRA villages had formally recognised village JAMAATS. These JAMAATS played very important roles in the lives of VOHRA villagers. The Jamaats helped settle disputes among villagers and listened to all sorts of complaints from the villagers including complaints from older persons who failed to get the attention and care from their children. We no longer have village Jamaats and we do not have formally recognised organisation to turn to for assistance or advice or get our problems resolved. We also do not come across villages which have elders who command respect and whose advice is willingly listened to and followed.      
            We feel, in the absence of village Jamaats and respected village elders we should turn to our dar-ul-ulooms and our village based ulema to help fill the gaps left by the weakening of the joint/extended family system. The dar-ul-ulooms and the ulema will not be expected to look after older persons but the dar-ul-ulooms could hopefully run awareness raising sessions for our village-based brothers as well as sisters to emphasise the importance of caring for older and physically/mentally weak family members. There is a need we feel for dar-ul-ulooms to try and reach out to people and help them understand what our religion requires of us.