Inside Arunachal’s Polygamy Problem - Part 2
May 16, 2026
In Part 2 of the story on polygamy among tribal communities in Arunachal Pradesh, Nada Nampi, now an advocate, speaks about the disturbing impact this practice has on women, children, families, and society at large.
Having grown up in an emotionally dysfunctional family marked by polygamy, Nampi’s biggest criterion in a life partner was understanding — someone who could recognise the weight of her lived experience. When she met her husband, who had also grown up in a broken family shaped by similar circumstances, she felt she had found someone who would understand her. She hoped they could build a better future together, leaving behind the pain and patterns they had both been forced to live with.
But some social customs are inherited in ways that the very patterns people suffer under become the ones they carry forward; and Nampi did not realise when her biggest fear would become her own reality.
Today, she sees her life for what it is — and has chosen to speak up, not just for herself, but for a just future.