Thread by @PinjraTod

RIE BHOPAL EXPELS STUDENT FROM HOSTEL ON ACCOUNT OF HER DEPRESSION, CLAIMS MEDICINE CERTIFICATE FALSE AND HUMILIATES HER PARENTS!

1/In a completely authoritarian way, the administration of Regional Institute of Education, Bhopal has resorted to the most vicious attacks on women students.

2/They seem to think that they assume absolute power over the lives of students and can go about expelling them from the hostel with complete impunity

3/They must be reminded that their institution is not their Jaagir, where they keep pronouncing one judgment after another without any accountability, threatening and intimidating students and their parents with illegal notices of eviction and expulsion. RT: @MasalaBai

4/After the brilliant fight put up by women of the college against the rules and restrictions that controlled their mobility and autonomy, the administration is now clamping down on students with severe action on small violations of hostel rules. facebook.com/pinjratod/vide…

5/Unsettled by the protests, the administration is now penalizing students in surreptitious ways. In one incident, a woman resident was evicted from her hostel on account of her not filling the ‘leave slip’ a slip that is meant to be submitted to the ‘wing leader.’ @mehartweets

6/The warden found this as an excuse to punish her and to get her expelled from the hostel. After fighting back for weeks, the woman eventually had to leave the hostel and go. RT: @nehadixit123 @kavita_krishnan @UmarKhalidJNU @kunalkamra88

thequint.com/news/india/pin…

7/More recently, a woman resident who has recently been diagnosed with moderate depressive disorder who was appealing to the admin to get a medical leave for a week, has been notified to immediately vacate her hostel and ‘be handed over to her guardian.’ RT: @deepikapadukone

8/On the one hand, she has been accused of presenting a ‘false’ prescription of her medical condition and on the other hand, the admin holds her depression as an excuse for her to be expelled from the hostel. RT: @FarOutAkhtar @ReallySwara @kalkikanmani @Nidhi @mitalisaran

9/ It is clear how the administration creates a double bind, where students are expected to produce ‘documents’ to seek outings from the hostel in exchange for their right to mobility. RT: @IjeomaOluo @Femi_Sorry @khanumarfa

10/ if one has to take leave to attend a wedding, they must submit the invitation card or have the parents of the students speak to the administration to sanction their leave. @mehartweets @kunalkamra88 @newslaundry @karunanundy @pbhushan1 @free_thinker

11/In this case, the woman had to deposit her medical prescription to justify the ‘purpose of her outing.’

RT: @BDUTT @SarahKSilverman @Hannahgadsby @monaeltahawy

facebook.com/87974940544477…

12/The prescription she had submitted to the hostel authorities was merely lacking a counter signature/stamp of AIIMS, which was a genuine mistake and lapse on the part of the hospital and was subsequently rectified by the hospital authorities, testifying the diagnosis.

13/ Using this as a pretext, University pronounced her prescription as ‘false’ and went onto to cite her depression as an excuse to demand her eviction! RT: @deepikapadukone @TheRestlessQuil @mehartweets @AuratAzadiMarch @MasalaBai @womensweb @monaeltahawy

14/They even go to the extent of calling her father, threatening to hand his daughter over to the police, when she requested them to not make her vacate the hostel. @AnooBhu @nandinisundar @ndtv @TheQuint @thewire_in @htTweets @the_hindu @TOIIndiaNews

15/When the father appealed to their humanity and requested them to abstain from making such demands on his daughter, the administration responded by saying that their humanity lies in the fact that they didn’t immediately throw the woman out of the hostel.

16/The high handedness of the administration and the tone in which they seem to be addressing both the father and daughter is clearly reflective of their Brahamanical mindset – which thinks of ostracization as ‘kindness’ as opposed to violence!

17/Its clear that their problem with the student runs deeper than what is visible – it is not just a function of their prejudice against mental health but also a manifestation of their misogyny, casteism, classism.

18/Where they make the student and their family feel personally obligated and eternally grateful to the institution for giving them a place in it. RT: @FarOutAkhtar @Javedakhtarjadu @Shehla_Rashid @AnooBhu

19/The trope of the hostel seat being seen as a gesture of goodwill on the part of the University administration is also seen to be repeating itself. @FarOutAkhtar @thirunangai @Mayawati @jigneshmevani80

20/We must remind them that accommodation is not a charity, but our right! The administration further threatened to stop the woman’s entry from the hostel, said that they would resort to denying her mess food as an attempt to force her to leave if their order is not followed!

22/When the father stated that the second point of the order stands falsified as the prescription is not in fact false but legitimate, then the administration went on to announce that the very basis of her depression is ground enough for her expulsion.

23/The father reminded them how that went against the spirit of Mental Health Act of 1987 then the administration responded with complete disregard and challenged them to take the matter to court. @maaarizma @MasabaG @MasalaBai @AnooBhu @karunanundy

24/So callous, arrogant and brazenly discriminatory was the administration that they proudly announced that they would only take her back when the court passes a judgment in her favour!

25/This is how the everyday reality of law, its inaccessibility, its inapproachability is weaponised by those in power to maintain and reproduce structures of oppression and inequality, with full impunity.

26/It must be noted that the woman was given no prior notice to vacate the hostel, thereby foreclosing the possibility to appeal/negotiate.

27/The student had previously changed her room once and now the admin is using this as a pretext to prove her ‘inability to mingle with fellow hostellers.’

28/Such harassment, needling, scrutiny and surveillance along with the threats of expulsion on a woman already suffering from depression only pushes her into isolation.

29/If this is not harassment, then what is? Is her father wrong in asking the administration to take some responsibility for actively creating conditions for her to not feel at ease?

30/In fact, the administration thinks that it is of ‘great risk’ to have a student suffering from depression to stay in the hostel as ‘she may commit suicide.’ RT: @AuratAzadiMarch @MasalaBai @jigneshmevani80 @Mayawati @mehartweets @MajlisLaw @tarshingo @povmumbai

31/This at once exposes the very farce of protectionism while also revealing how little the admin does to enable spaces for people along different axes of vulnerability to access education rather it difficult in all possible ways to further disable their participation.

32/Merely getting admission into these institutes is not enough, we must create conditions for interactions, solidarity, offer support systems. @kavita_krishnan @guardian @gidla_sujatha @gautambhatia88 @genderlogindia @BBCHindi @_YogendraYadav

Thankfully, the student community recognizes this and had stood by the woman and even pursued her father to not take her from the hostel, violating the bogus order.

We support the women students of the hostel and college who have demonstrated what fraternity is meant, as they stand shoulder to shoulder against the administration’s arbitrary diktats!

These rules, these restrictions, these hostel curfews - from which the administration derives regulatory power over women’s lives, bodies and dreams must go! @monaeltahawy @InQueer @FeministReview_ @FeministReads_