The plight of a Jadavpur University postgraduate student has brought to light two dark sides of the lockdown: violence at home and the reluctance of some Calcuttans to put paying guests up in the season of the virus.

Jadavpur University has now allowed the student to stay at its guesthouse.

The student, a resident of Garia, has complained that she was being physically abused by her father and brother who has a developmental disorder and has shown signs of extreme impatience during this period of prolonged confinement at home.

In a complaint to the West Bengal Commission for Women’s Rights, the student has said that after an argument with her brother on April 15, he tried to push her.

The student, in her email dated April 15, appealed for a “safe residence”.

A team from Narendrapur police station went to the woman’s house early on April 16 after being alerted by the chairperson of the women’s commission, Leena Gangopadhyay.

The women’s commission offered the student accommodation at its home in Baruipur, but she declined citing the distance from the university.

She stayed with a friend near the Ruby rotary before moving into a paying-guest accommodation on Garfa Main Road but the landlady was wary of letting an outsider stay in the house amid the coronavirus pandemic.

JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das told Metro that he had personally spoken to the lady, requesting her not to throw out the student. “I tried telling her it would not be proper of her to throw the young woman out,” he said.

The woman then moved into the university guesthouse on Tuesday.

Psychologist Ishita Sanyal, who runs an NGO engaged in mental health rehabilitation, said domestic violence has been on the rise worldwide during the lockdown.

“People with mental illness or intellectual disability are unable to express their difficulty or concern,” Sanyal said. “The pent-up anxiety gets manifested through aggression.”

Sanyal said her organisation, Turning Point, had received several calls from parents of children with disorder, expressing their concern about unusual behavioural patterns among their kids amid the lockdown.

Psychotherapist Farishta Dastur Mukherji said the alleged behaviour of the landlady demonstrates how fear overtakes one’s self in a pandemic. “Anxiety is a normal reaction for any human being. But often anxiety overtakes a person’s existence, particularly at a time of the pandemic.”