Polygamy: A social distortion backed by no science

Polygamy belongs to the past. Equality, dignity, and scientific social policy belong to the future. Assam has chosen the future – Mita Nath

Assam's Anti-Polygamy Bill is a bold step that has long been overdue in India. Assam has become a national leader in marital reform. It rightly introduced the anti-polygamy bill and therefore achieved several historic milestones. It brings gender justice to marginalized women. It protects children from developmental harm. It aligns the state with modern scientific and legal principles. It prevents demographic distortion. It strengthens constitutional morality over archaic customs.

Polygamy is often defended under cultural, religious, or traditional pretexts. Yet every serious scientific study, demographic trend, legal precedent, and global policy pattern leads to a single conclusion: that polygamy is harmful psychologically, economically, socially, and constitutionally. It is a system engineered to benefit a small group of men while harming women, destabilising families, and burdening society.

A 2020 WHO-UNFPA meta-analysis covering 27 countries found that women in polygamous marriages experienced higher depression rates (71% higher), greater emotional distress (54% higher), and higher domestic violence risk (2.3 times more likely). The mental-health burden emerges from rivalry between co-wives, instability in affection, and reduced autonomy. Polygamy institutionalises persistent gender insecurity, something monogamous systems do not produce at this scale. Polygamy is found to create artificial scarcity where men accumulate wives, leaving poorer, younger men unmarried. A 2011 demographic analysis in West Africa showed that regions with high polygamy rates saw 25-30% of men unable to find partners. Rise in crime, radicalisation, and trafficking due to large frustrated bachelor populations. Societies with polygamy consistently show higher social volatility. Besides, scientific evidence shows that men in polygamous marriages have higher rates of extramarital relationships. Instability in co-wife relations creates greater emotional infidelity, and also children face higher abandonment rates. Hence polygamy is a destabiliser, not a moral guard.

Research from the Journal of Comparative Family Studies (2019), spanning 14,000 children in polygamous families across Africa and Central Asia, concluded that children from polygamous households scored 40% lower in educational performance. They were 28% more likely to suffer behavioural disorders. They had poorer nutritional outcomes, especially in families with more than two wives. The reason is resource dilution. When one man divides time, money, food, and emotional capacity among multiple families, children suffer measurable deficits.

Polygamy is inherently unequal because only men can practise it. Women have no reciprocal right. It creates a hierarchy of wives, violating dignity and equal status. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that gender hierarchy violates Article 14. Since polygamy systemically places women in inferior marital positions, it breaches Article 15. A system where men can replace wives while women cannot remarry freely is fundamentally discriminatory.

The Supreme Court in Joseph Shine v. Union of India (2018) held that marital dignity is central to life and liberty. Polygamy destroys dignity by reducing women to divisible marital units, denying them equal emotional and economic rights and creating emotional insecurity and psychological abuse.

Out of 195 countries, 180 countries prohibit or limit polygamy. Even Muslim-majority nations such as Turkey, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Albania have abolished it. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, imposes stringent restrictions making polygamy nearly impossible. India's outdated tolerance of polygamy under personal law stands out as a global anomaly, not a religious necessity.

Contrary to popular belief, polygamy is not a minority-only issue; it is primarily a poverty-driven issue. A study from the International Journal of Social Welfare (2020) indicates that 82% of polygamous households globally fall under poor or lower-income categories. This means women trapped in polygamous marriages are often those with the least ability to fight back. Assam's bill offers them legal escape and protection.

Assam's Anti-Polygamy Bill is a landmark reform because Assam's own demographic and social data reveal the emergent necessity of the bill. NCRB crime data (2023) shows domestic violence complaints are 23-27% higher in regions where polygamy is culturally prevalent. Assam's Health Department studies found that women from polygamous families were 2.5 times more likely to suffer anaemia and depression. In districts with reported polygamous marriages, child marriage prevalence was 8-12% higher, showing a clear correlation.

Certain regions in Assam recorded unnatural fertility spikes (NFHS-5, 2021). While fertility itself is not wrong, organized polygamy-driven demographic expansion creates pressure on land, a welfare burden, social tension, and unequal access to state resources. Hence, the bill eliminates the structural loophole enabling demographic manipulation.

Personal laws that allow secret second marriages, unregistered marriages, exploitation of minor girls, desertion of first wives, and marriages without consent are gender biased and always discriminate against women. Anti-polygamy legislation stops the misuse of these loopholes by making only monogamous marriage legally valid and enforceable.

Today, Assam joins progressive regions worldwide that recognize equality above tradition, dignity above patriarchal convenience and women's rights above personal law exemptions. This reform honours the founding constitutional vision of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who famously said that "If religion opposes liberty, equality, and fraternity, then religion must change."

Certain oppressive myths like polygamy, which are a part of religious freedom, need to be addressed. Article 25 protects religious freedom subject to public order, morality, health, and fundamental rights. Since polygamy violates women's rights and dignity, it fails all thresholds. As regards women's consent, every global study proves consent is shaped by economic dependency, social pressure, and fear of abandonment. Consent obtained under structural inequality is not true consent. Also, the myth that polygamy provides security to widows falls flat because widows need social support, economic rights, education, and livelihood assistance that are nowadays provided by state governments across India and not some inclusion into a marital structure that reduces them to secondary wives.

The Anti-Polygamy Bill is not only a breakthrough for constitutional gender justice, but also a structural correction based on scientific reasoning and constitutional morality. It is a reform India should have implemented decades ago.

Polygamy belongs to the past. Equality, dignity, and scientific social policy belong to the future. Assam has chosen the future.

(The writer can be reached at mitanathbora7@gmail.com.)