As the schools in Bangladesh reopened after long Covid-induced shutdown last month, many girls in this coastal district were missing from classrooms with a majority of them lost to early marriages. For the mostly poor families, hit hard by the pandemic, the 18-month shutdown has proved too long and unbearable to take care of their young girls. In Bagerhat, around 3,178 girls, mostly school goers, were married off between March 2020 till September 20221, according to district Education Officer Md Kamruzzaman.Nilanjana (not her real name) was in class eight in March 2020 when the surging pandemic closed her Basabati Rahmania Secondary school in Bagerhat, along with education shutdown across the country. Also read: Child marriage was an epidemic within the pandemic in Bangladesh