To the Left Democratic Front-ruled Eraviperoor grama panchayat, every day is a Yoga Day. Perhaps, Eraviperoor is the only grama panchayat in the State that conducts yoga training programmes throughout the year.
“Our aim is to reach the benefits of yoga to everyone in the panchayat by providing training at an affordable cost. The yoga training programme of the panchayat is led by Yogacharya A.S. Hareesh Kumar who had his training in Clinical Yoga from Kottakkal Ayurveda College. The fee for the 20-day programme is only Rs.50. In effect, we observe Yoga Day in the panchayat on a daily basis,” says panchayat president N. Rajeev, who is the driving spirit behind the programme.
A member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Mr. Rajeev says the panchayat has been running its yoga training programme for the past three years and it would be extended to schools and Kudumbasree units soon. He claims that the yoga programme over the past three years has proved to be effective in addressing many a health problem facing the senior citizens and over 1,000 persons have benefitted from the programme.
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Besides yoga, the 20-day programme also provides tips to tackle various lifestyle diseases.
The Primary Health Centre and the panchayat health standing committee have been supervising the programme.
Eraviperoor is the first grama panchayat in the country that won the Prime Minister’s National Award for Public Administration.
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The panchayat has been giving priority to e-governance at the grassroots level, making local self-governance citizen-centric, efficient, responsive, cost-effective, and result-oriented, thus giving a fillip to rural development.
The World Yoga Day celebrations of the panchayat would be held at Government Upper Primary School, Vallamkulam, at 5.30 a.m. on Sunday.
The ISO-certified grama panchayat, which has won the Prime Minister’s award, has been conducting Yoga classes for the last three years