IIT Kharagpur is advising parents not to ask their children about their CGPA scores or internship plans too hastily when they call them.

Such queries exacerbate parental pressure and could potentially trigger mental health issues, the IIT's dean of students said on the opening day of a three-day online parents' induction programme.

The induction programme for parents was started following a spate of student deaths and an understanding that there was an urgent need to relieve students of some of the pressure.

"The parents were told they should talk to students more about their general well-being on the campus and their daily lives. They should try to be friendly towards their children. If the interaction revolves around the CGPA score or the next internship plan, it triggers pressure which may not be healthy for a student," the dean told Metro.

Students come to study at an IIT after a rigorous training and screening process, which often leaves them burnt out.

In such a scenario, any additional pressure must be avoided, an IIT official said.

During the interaction, parents of first-year BTech students were advised to visit the campus at least twice in a semester so that the students feel connected.

"A physical interaction is also supposed to help parents understand the students better. The more they understand their children, the better," Arun Chakraborty, dean of student well-being, said.

Parents of 1,000 first-year BTech students who reside in Lal Bahadur Shastri Hall of Residence were part of the session on Day I.

An external experts' committee constituted to probe the recurrence of deaths had identified parental pressure as one of the reasons that triggers stress among students and asked the institute to take remedial measures.

As many as five students have died on the campus since January. The deaths laid bare the IIT's absence of a robust mechanism to prevent them.

A division bench of the Supreme Court, hearing a petition on student deaths on campuses across the country, sought to know from IIT Kharagpur earlier what it was doing to prevent them.

An on-campus parents' induction programme was organised before the start of first-year classes in August.

That is being followed up with the online programme from November 11 to 13.

An IIT Kharagpur official said the external expert committee probing the spate of deaths told director Suman Chakraborty that more than 80 per cent of students reported severe parental pressure before the committee.

"The problem is that as parents, we intend to guide students, but fail to realise that even well-meaning pressure can turn out to be counterproductive. The IIT cannot control that. So we keep harping on the adverse effects of parental pressure," the official said.

IIT director Chakraborty said on Wednesday: "The purpose of the induction programme is to bridge the gap between the IIT Kharagpur administration and parents. A constant engagement leading to the sharing of information and feedback can help us contain the situation."

During the induction, the parents were informed about steps such as the appointment of additional counsellors, a dean of students' well-being, and the launch of an app called SETU to improve students' lives on the campus.