Getting hitched in the time of Covid
Prasun Sonwalkar Alamy
Wedding planners are devising innovative ways to overcome the UK s Covid impact on multi-billion-pound Asian wedding industry
The ‘big fat Indian wedding’ replete with lavish designer attire, Bollywood-style dance and music, food and days of revelry is known as the ‘big fat British Asian wedding’ in the UK, but it may soon be renamed the ‘small slim British Asian wedding’. It has been a bad time for couples keen to get hitched; tens of thousands of weddings have been cancelled or delayed due to the Covid restrictions. Consequently, the multi-billion-pound Asian wedding industry has taken a severe hit (an average Asian wedding with 300 guests is estimated to cost at least £35,000). Also hit are the many suppliers of wedding material based in the Indian sub-continent.
The long read: Asians high on UK’s Covid grim list
Prasun Sonwalkar Reuters
People with sub-continental and non-white origins have been significantly more impacted by Covid than others. What are the reasons for this vulnerability?
Scratch the surface, or read between the lines, and a different picture emerges. The grim headline that is better known across the globe refers to the United Kingdom suffering one of the worst impacts from Covid-19: over 150,000 deaths and more than 4.3 million cases. But less known outside the country is the disproportionately high impact of the virus on non-white communities comprising large numbers of people with origins in the Indian sub-continent. It is not only Rajesh Jayaseelan, 45, who moved to the UK from Bengaluru a decade ago and made a living in London as a taxi driver, but also several respected doctors such as Abdul Mabud Choudhury, 53, Poornima Nair, 56, or Anton Sebastianpillai, 70, who passed away after contracting the virus.