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Nagarajan and Sahoo

Table 3. (Continued).
Woman level Physical violence Sexual violence Emotional violence Any violence
indicators and Non‑ Polygynous Non‑ Polygynous Non‑ Polygynous Non‑ Polygynous
characteristics polygynous polygynous polygynous Polygynous
related to violence
Control over money: Owns a bank account
No 21.8 22.7 5.1 9.5 11.7 21.0 25.4 31.9
Yes 22.2 42.6 4.7 12.9 11.2 29.6 25.9 47.8
Attitudes to wife beating: Number of situations in which wife beating is justified
0 15.1 30.4 3.2 7.4 7.3 22.1 17.9 35.0
1 – 2 25.3 42.2 4.7 8.7 12.6 26.8 29.7 44.3
3 – 4 32.9 41.9 7.3 13.5 17.2 32.8 37.8 53.5
5 – 7 32.1 51.4 8.3 28.2 18.5 37.5 37.2 57.7
Characteristics related
to violence
Alcohol consumption by husband
No 17.1 29.9 3.2 4.9 8.4 22.1 20.6 35.9
Yes 39.3 52.6 10.3 24.2 21.4 37.2 44.2 58.7
Number of marital control behavior displayed by husband
0 11.2 27.2 1.1 4.1 3.2 14.3 12.7 29.8
1 – 2 28.2 34.1 5.4 8.2 13.0 19.0 33.3 42.7
3 – 6 46.3 58.2 15.1 27.1 34.0 54.9 54.7 66.7
Total 22.1 38.5 4.8 12.2 11.3 27.8 25.8 44.5

violence, and bad feelings among other wives. Sometimes husbands’ resort to emotional violence to control violence
between wives (Adewale et al., 2021).
Regardless of the personal characteristics of women and the form of violence, a higher proportion of women in
polygynous unions experienced spousal violence compared to non-polygynous women. Scheduled caste women (bottom
of India’s caste system), especially those in polygynous unions, were subjected to severe violence. Irudayam et al. (2012)
argued that schedule caste women (known as dalit women) faced local gender-and-caste discrimination and violence
due to extreme imbalance in social, economic, and political power equations. While there was a significant difference in
spousal violence between polygynous and non-polygynous women, there was little difference between Hindu and Muslim
polygynous women. Spousal violence was more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas, especially in polygynous
marital structures, indicating stronger patriarchal norms in rural areas than in urban areas. In this study, spousal violence was
observed to be higher among working women in polygynous and non-polygynous unions. Many studies have also reported
similar findings in other contexts (Schuler et al., 1998; Gallin, 1999; Tranchant & Mueller, 2017) and in India (Krishnan,
2005; Rocca, et al., 2008; Krishnan et al., 2010; Weitzman, 2014), indicating a conflict between financial autonomy of
women and marital control behaviors of husbands. Studies by Rao (1997) and Krishnan (2005) found that economic status
and alcohol consumption by the husbands played an important role in the abuse of wives in India. Consistent with other
studies, poor polygynous women were more likely to be exposed to violence due to their low income and poor bargaining
power (Aizer, 2011). Furthermore, the possibility of spousal violence may not carry a monotonous negative relationship
with increasing wealth (Kishor & Johnson, 2005). Our results also indicate that emotional violence was higher among
the richest women in polygynous unions compared to richest women in non-polygynous unions. As the evidence for
the positive relationship between wealth status and emotional violence is less in the literature, the issue requires further
probing. However, it should be noted that the studies have reported the higher prevalence of spousal violence if the wives
were engaged in paid employment or earned more than their husbands (Dalal, 2011; Kishor & Johnson, 2005; Stöckl et al.,
2021). As the economic empowerment of women increases spousal violence, there is a possibility that increased wealth
status of the households may lead to increased emotional violence, if not physical/sexual violence.
Globally, women who married before the age of 15 years were more likely to experience violence than those who
married 18 (Ahinkorah et al., 2022; Kidman, 2017). Under both marriage categories (<18 years and ≥18 years), women

International Journal of Population Studies | 2021, Volume 7, Issue 1 123