The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns have had a devastating effect on communities and economies throughout the world. Exacerbating existing inequalities, the pandemic has exposed unique challenges with an unprecedented rise in numbers of child/early/forced marriages during COVID-19 pandemic. However, one of the least documented consequence of the Covid-19 in the Indian context is a spurt in the phenomenon of ‘rushed marriages’ during the pandemic. This study seeks to arrive at a more nuanced definition of rushed marriages from empirical data, and underscores the gendered impact of the pandemic. It attempts to highlight the factors which led families to adopt negative coping mechanisms, like getting the girls married off in a hurry. While extreme poverty and economic crises within households and loss of livelihoods appears to be the root cause, the study brings to light many other reasons which pushed families to conduct rushed marriages.
It points out the contingencies enforced by the lockdowns which pushed girls who had rushed marriages into circumstances of extreme vulnerability by citing narratives of girls and women who suffered immediate and lifelong consequences of rushed marriages during the pandemic. However, the study also focuses on how the pandemic enabled a micro-environment where adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) could exercise their agency and take steps which were otherwise not possible.
The study asserts that there is an urgent need to avoid past pitfalls and instead transform the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic into better support for adolescents, especially girls and young women being pushed into rushed marriages. It provides key learnings which can be drawn to develop prevention/intervention strategies that serve as warnings, as humanitarian disasters continue to strike at alarming rates.