Bhopal, April 7: In a shocking incident, a woman student, studying at a college in Madhya Pradesh, was expelled from the hostel after she requested for a medical leave for depression. Reports inform that the student was studying in the Regional Institute of Education in Bhopal and had requested medical leave for a week due to moderate depressive disorder, which she had diagnosed recently. According to a report by India Today, the woman was notified to immediately vacate the Vinay Niketan Hostel of the institute after the administration claimed that her prescription was fake.

The incident came into light after it was shared in Facebook post by Pinjra Tod, a feminist movement that seeks to protest against gender discriminatory hostel rules against women. The post read that the woman resident was accused of presenting a fake prescription of her medical condition and the hostel administration held her condition as an excuse for her to be expelled from the hostel.

Reports inform that as per rules laid down by the Hostel authorities, students are expected to furnish documents to seek outings from the hostel. The post adds that in this case, the woman had to deposit her medical prescription to justify the purpose of her outing. Higher Use of Social Media Linked to Depression in Girls: Study. 

According to reports, the prescription that the woman had submitted to the hostel authorities lacked a countersignature/stamp of AIIMS, which was claimed genuine mistake on the part of the hospital and was rectified by the hospital authorities, testifying the diagnosis.

Here's the Facebook Post:

When the woman requested them to not make her vacate the hostel, the Hostel authorities called her father and threatened to hand his daughter over to the police. Even after her father requested the authorities, the administration said he should be grateful that they didn’t immediately throw the woman out of the hostel. Adding more to the misery of the woman, the Regional Institute of Education while pronouncing her prescription as 'false’, stated that her medical condition was an excuse to demand her eviction. Can Positive Thinking Cure Depression? Symptoms, Care & Treatment of Mental Health Disorders Explained By An Expert.

When the father pointed out that the second point of the order was falsified as the prescription was not fake and hence the eviction order was based on distrimination and against the spirit of Mental Health Act of 1987. The hostel administration disregarded the father's explanation and challenged him to take the matter to court.

The Facebook post by Pinjra Tod further claimed that the woman had previously changed her room once and the hostel administration used this as a pretext to prove her inability to mingle with fellow hostellers.’

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2019 01:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).