Discussions with parents to go on every alternate month: Director of IIT Kharagpur
Telegraph | 30 July 2025
IIT Kharagpur will keep the interaction window with parents open. The authorities will speak to parents every alternate month to remind them not to expose their children to parental pressure, the IIT director said last week.
At the induction programme last Friday, the director cautioned the parents against subjecting their children to any pressure because “more than 80 per cent BTech students” told a panel of experts that they were subjected to “huge parental pressure”.
The committee has been engaged to probe and prevent frequent deaths of students on the campus.
At IIT Kharagpur, four BTech students have been found hanging in the past seven months.
“We would like to have interaction with parents every second month so they could be constantly reminded about what they should not do. It should not just be a customary one-time engagement. The message needs to be drilled into their minds. We also need to hear what they have to say,” director Suman Chakraborty said.
An IIT official said such interaction was also necessary because a section of parents “seem to be ignorant about their wards and leave it entirely to the institute”.
“This kind of indifference is also not desirable because students pursuing BTech programmes are very tender minds and so the parents need to be concerned as much about their future as the institute. During the interaction programme, we will also make this point, “ the director said.
The student deaths had highlighted the absence of a robust mechanism to prevent such tragedies.
“Now the administration is seeking to be proactive, and that’s why the director hosted an induction programme for the parents of the BTech entrants on Friday. He is eager to emphasise the importance of a cautious approach that parents should embrace. Which is why he has proposed a regular interaction with the parents,” said an IIT official.
Earlier, the institute would host induction programme only for the students. This year, one such event was held for parents.
IIT Kharagpur students had earlier accused the authorities of “copying” an email that was circulated after a student had committed suicide in June 2024 and sending it again to students after a third-year boy was found dead on the campus on January 12.
That was the first of the four recent deaths.
The students then accused the administration of showing “no genuine concern for their students”.
An IIT official said on Saturday that the director has emphasised that “efforts have to be made so students can be freed from stress as much as possible”.
“The director believes if parental pressure is leading to stress, then that has to be addressed immediately through constant engagement. He is also of the view that the parents who are ignorant about the well-being of their children need to be alerted,” the official said.
The IIT director said they had come across instances where students visiting on-campus counselling facilities regularly were not taking the medicines as prescribed, especially when they are at home.
“This happens because the parents stigmatise mental health problems. This harms the students, often leading to catastrophic outcomes. We will caution parents about this in our regular interactions,” Chakraborty told Metro.