Bigamy in India: Finding from National Family Health Survey

Sayeed Unisa, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Grace Bahalen Mundu, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Bigamy is basically a problem of a male-dominant culture than religion. In India according to Hindu, Parsi and Christian Marriage Act, there is a prohibition on contracting a second marriage during the lifetime of the spouse. Except legal cases on bigamy and the last census of 1961 and 1974 survey information, not much is known on this issue.In the large scale survey NFHS conducted in India, information on second marriage of husband was collected from women. Among currently married women, 1.7, 2.5 and 2.1 percent among Hindus, Muslims and Christian reported that their husband have one more wife. Those women whose husband have one more wife are facing much higher degree of emotional, physical and sexual violence in comparison to those women whose husband have not gone for one more wife. Violence faced by these women may be cause or consequence of second marriage of husband.