Minister of State for AYUSH and Defence Shripad Yesso Naik on Friday said his Ministry has proposed to establish a federation for the promotion of yoga as sport. Acommittee had been constituted under yoga guru Baba Ramdev to take the idea forward.
Speaking after inaugurating the two-day international conference on ‘Yoga for Heart Care’ organised by the Ministry of AYUSH here, he said the promotion of yoga as a sport is one among many proposals the Ministry has been working on in its bid to take yoga to everyone. It has proposed the inclusion of yoga as a curriculum in schools and added that a board had been constituted for the certification of yoga institutions to improve the standards of yoga teaching.
Mr. Naik said the Ministry has introduced ‘eco-friendly’ yoga mats to discourage the use of those made of plastic or other ‘harmful’ items. It has favoured the inclusion of a course on yoga for international students coming to India for studies. The National Board for Promotion and Development of Yoga and Naturopathy and the Morarji Desai National Institute for Yoga were spearheading yoga promotion, research and education.
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Mr. Naik also highlighted the programme launched for inmates of Tihar Jail in New Delhi. They are being trained professionally in yoga under the ‘Sanjeevan’ scheme.
In his address, Baba Ramdev, founder, Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar, said he would work towards according sports status for yoga and take it to the Olympics. “The country’s youth will be trained in yoga as part of the ongoing mission. Whoever has been practising yoga has to come together to take the ancient Indian art to a global level.”
This is the fifth in the series of international yoga conferences by AYUSH that began in 2015. The theme-based annual event largely focuses on research in yoga. Experts will discuss and share their thoughts on the subject. Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH, spoke about Bhuvan Yoga app and Yoga Locator app – launched to document yoga events and locate yoga institutions. With Bhuvan Yoga, we found that 10 crore people practised yoga at the International Day of Yoga this year, he said. He said ‘green’ yoga mats had been developed to support local artisans. NIMHANS in Bengaluru has set up a research centre to study the benefits of yoga on patients.
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Kamlesh D. Patel, president, Sri Rama Chandra Mission, Hyderabad, Dr. H.R. Nagendra, Chancellor, SVYASA University, Bengaluru, and Mysuru MP Pratap Simha also spoke.
More than 50 eminent experts of yoga and allied sciences from India and abroad will attend. About 700 delegates, including 40 international delegates, and yoga enthusiasts are participating. Technical sessions are being conducted on sub-themes including Yoga for Heart Care: Emerging Trends and Research; role of yoga in preventive cardiology; yoga and rehabilitative cardiology; role of yoga in the management of hypertension; yoga and coronary artery disease; yoga for cardiovascular health: evidence based yoga protocols and experience sharing. A discussion on the need to promote yoga as a sport was held with resource persons from India and abroad.