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Nagarajan and Sahoo

of India and also at the national level. Although the adjusted effect of polygyny on spousal violence was also significant
at the national level, it was found to be insignificant in three regions of India (North, East, and Central). This may be
due to the much stronger contribution of women empowerment-related variables (education, participation in household
decision-making, freedom of movement, control over money, attitudes toward wife-beating, and marital control behavior
displayed by husband) which are controlled in the model. It should also be noted that adjusted effect of polygyny on
sexual violence was significant in eastern regions and emotional violence in central region.
4.1. Limitation
Although this study used a large sample size from a nationally representative dataset, a few important limitations need to
be noted. The results of this study are limited by the cross-sectional nature of the analyzed data; therefore, it could not have
captured all the known risk factors of spousal violence at the individual and community levels. Future studies may focus on
the variables omitted in the current study such as history of abuse, residential status of polygynous women (co-residing with
husband or not), and rank order of the polygynous women (first/second wife). Furthermore, the results of the study were
not supplemented with qualitative data because the goal of the study was to determine the effect of spousal violence on the
marital structure (more specifically in polygynous marriage). Since polygyny is a rare marital union in India, a qualitative
study can be undertaken to understand, in depth, what other factors affect spousal violence. Despite all these limitations,
this study helps to understand the importance of eliminating polygyny and also its impact on spousal violence.

5. Conclusions

Spousal violence is one of the major social problems globally, especially in India and other South Asian countries.
The analysis indicates that polygyny, further, amplifies spousal violence against currently married women. There are
several individual and household level factors that cause spousal violence. Notwithstanding the higher odds of spousal
violence among women in polygynous unions compared with those in monogamous ones across different socioeconomic
characteristics of women and across regions of India, the findings of the present study call for a uniform approach
to deal with spousal violence at the national level. Further, irrespective of polygynous or non-polygynous unions, this
research provides evidence for the need for a proactive and integrated approach to empowering women economically,
promoting social environments that are intolerant toward the controlling behavior of men and spousal violence, thus
breaking the norms that sustain women’s vulnerability to violence within the society. An environment of intolerance
toward violence against women needs to be created by removing sociocultural barriers that prevent women from reporting
spousal violence. The findings of the study also call for strengthening the implementation of the laws designed to remove
more than one marriage simultaneously by men (polygyny). Lack of implementation of marital laws leads to polygynous
unions and makes women even more vulnerable to violence by their husbands. The newly enacted protection of women
against domestic violence legislation, 2005, in India will go a long way in strengthening the existing goal of reducing the
prevalence of domestic violence. Education could provide a woman with more opportunities for financial independence,
allowing her to leave an abusive husband. Public education through media channels should be used to target women
who may fall outside the formal education system. Involvement of men in all these interventions is essential to change
people’s attitude toward violence against women. Moreover, as the law does not permit men to marry more than one wife
simultaneously in India (except for one religious minority group), this form of marriage should be discouraged by strictly
enforcing it to protect women from marital violence in polygynous unions. To conclude, the analysis has contributed to
the body of the literature by analyzing the association between polygynous marriage and spousal violence in India.
Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and International Institute for
Population Sciences (IIPS) for providing a research grant for undertaking this study. Authors also thank to Ms. Srishti
Srivastava for helping in the research work.
Funding

None.
Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they do not have any competing interest.

International Journal of Population Studies | 2021, Volume 7, Issue 1 125