BACKGROUND:
Among migrant women in precarious urban settings, partnership status structures gendered violence exposures and constrains agency, shaping co-occurring mental health harms. Using a syndemic lens, we examined whether violence patterns and anxiety–depression severity differ between never-partnered and ever-partnered migrant women in urban India.

METHODS:
We analyzed cross-sectional data from 322 migrant women (never-partnered n=28; ever-partnered n=294). Mental health was measured using combined anxiety-depression symptom scores (0-48) and categorized severity. For ever-partnered women, intimate partner violence (IPV) captured emotional/controlling, physical, sexual, reproductive coercion, and economic abuse. For never-partnered women, non-partner physical violence, harassment, sexual violence, and economic violence were assessed. Chi-square tests compared violence prevalence and mental health severity across partnership status.

RESULTS:
Ever-partnered women had significantly higher anxiety–depression severity than never-partnered women (χ²=11.12, p=0.025). Never-partnered women's symptoms were concentrated in the mild (39.3%) and moderate (50.0%) categories, with 10.7% in the moderately severe category and none in the severe/extremely severe category. Ever-partnered women showed 21.5% mild, 37.4% moderate, 28.7% moderately severe, 10.0% severe, and 2.4% extremely severe. Mean scores were higher among ever-partnered (M=17.57, SD=9.79) than never-partnered women (M=11.79, SD=6.04). Violence exposure was substantially higher among ever-partnered (45.2%) versus never-partnered women (10.7%) (χ²=12.49, p<0.001). Among ever-partnered women, IPV was primarily emotional/controlling (39.5%), with physical IPV (17.3%), sexual IPV (5.4%), and reproductive coercion (10.5%). Never-partnered women reported lower physical violence (7.1%) but higher harassment (7.1%) than ever-partnered women (χ²=21.13, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS:
Partnership status differentiated syndemic patterns: ever-partnered women experienced clustered IPV alongside higher anxiety–depression severity, reflecting gendered pathways of structural precarity operating through intimate partner control. Never-partnered women reported lower violence and symptom severity, but harassment remained salient, indicating distinct community-level risks. Prevention must address violence and mental distress as co-occurring harms shaped by migrant precarity, with IPV-focused integration for ever-partnered women and strengthened community safety for never-partnered women.