Women Empowerment a Panacea to Polygamy in Arunachal

…….Nyali Ete
English Journalism (30)

15th January, 2008
Polygamy is one of the oldest and deeply-entrenched social evils prevalent among many tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. It is not even considered an evil at all at the first instance. Socially, it is recognized, and rampantly and proudly practiced by the members of the community. In fact, it adds to the prestige of the person and his family or clan. As many wives one has, his social standing is correspondingly assumed and determined. Obviously, this evil practice has intricately inter-twined with the customs & traditions and ways of life of the people. People willingly continue it still today, though its prevalence is diminishing gradually owing to increasing awareness. Thanks to spread of education and concerted efforts of government agencies, missionaries and some enlightened personalities of the community.
This age-old practice has originated ostensibly because of such factors as skewed sex-ratio, male chauvinism, wide-spread poverty and economic hardships, frequent wars and fights among different tribes wherein many male members frequently lost their lives leaving behind their wives, who have no option, but to eventually marry their husbands’ brothers, and the like. This reveals that polygamy was but an unavoidable social evil with a tinge of necessity. This, in turn, tilted the position in favour of menfolk, and womenfolk have always been on the receiving ends.