Close on the heels of its international campaign to popularise yoga, the Ministry of External Affairs will send out groups of AYUSH experts to help set up departments of AYUSH in the leading universities of the member countries of the U.N. In line with the new scheme, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Indian missions abroad had reached out to foreign governments to host the AYUSH experts. The initiative found quick response from Iraq, Colombia and Reunion Island, which will soon be hosting AYUSH experts.
“We will begin the project by sending three groups of AYUSH troops to Colombia, Reunion Island and Iraq this week and ultimately plan to send AYUSH experts to maximum number of member countries of the United Nations,” said Sanjay Vedi, Programme Director of ICCR, which handles cultural diplomacy under the MEA and has been instrumental in roping in 192 countries across the world for the International Day of Yoga, which will be celebrated on Tuesday. Apart from Iraq, Colombia and the Reunion Island, the first phase of the project will include twelve other countries. “Each group of experts will have teachers, practitioners and demonstrators, who will train a first generation of teachers and students of AYUSH in these countries” Mr Vedi said.
Indian missions have been working to increase the footprint of AYUSH in the host countries and the AYUSH troops visiting these countries will follow the pattern of the yoga teachers that ICCR has been sending to the Indian missions.
Mr Vedi said that the project aims at imparting skills to the local population so that they can include AYUSH in their educational institutes and societies. “The government has set up 20 AYUSH cells and has organised the International Day of Yoga but the project of sending out AYUSH troops will help local population to become self-sufficient in the cultural inheritance of India.”
