A background overview of India in the 1990s covers geography and population, family structure and role relationships, gender roles, parent-child relationships, the role of elders, and sibling relationships. The section on maltreatment in the family addresses violence and its acceptability, the victimization of women through the life span, abortion, infanticide and selective neglect, health care, dowry-deaths, child abuse, spousal abuse, elder abuse, and sibling and filial abuse. Information on these subjects was obtained from an extensive literature review, including presentations and media articles. The author notes that in recent years India has been increasingly open about the problem of battered and abused women, but it is still reluctant to acknowledge intrafamilial violence toward children. Although Indian practitioners and researchers recognize the many forms of societal abuse perpetrated on children by adults, including child labor, child prostitution, child beggary, and child marriage, many continue to protect the sanctity of the family and parental rights by avoiding focusing on the parental abuse of children. Similarly, elder abuse is so contrary to the values of the Indian culture that acknowledging its occurrence would be a recognition of the deterioration of the foundation of India's tradition and values. As in many other cultures, India accepts sibling abuse as part of development, and filial violence may still be relatively nominal in India. 90 references