Starting Monday, students of Madras Medical College (MMC) will attend yoga classes in batches. About 40 students of various courses at MMC have enrolled for the month-long one-hour afternoon session at the college.
“To begin with, we have registered students who have evinced interest in being part of the activity. Students of various courses including medicine, pharmacy, audiology and speech language pathology have enrolled for this session,” said MMC dean V. Kanagasabai.
Last year, the Medical Council of India had asked medical colleges to introduce yoga as part of the curriculum, he said. The MCI, in its ‘Regulations on Graduate Medical Education 2012’, wanted colleges to allot stipulated hours for sports and extra-curricular activities including yoga.
“Yoga will benefit students of medical and paramedical courses as it will help improve their concentration and help them de-stress. Some students experience stress due to exams, while there are others from rural areas who find it difficult to get accustomed to city life,” he added.
The yoga classes will be conducted from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. “Yoga will definitely help us cope with stress and also improve our attention spans. We have six hours of class every day and we need to study for at least four hours to cover the syllabus,” said a second-year medical student of the college.
