The Union health ministry has despatched close to 200 yoga teachers in six districts to find out if practising the ancient exercises regularly would reduce the disease burden.
In addition to the yoga teachers, each district has also received 25-30 Ayush doctors who would tell people about the need to adopt healthy lifestyle, besides seeing the patients.
For the next three years, the teachers and the doctors will travel to the villages in the districts to spread the message and help people learn yoga postures.
“The aim is to see if lifestyle interventions like reduction in the consumption of salt, curbing the use of tobacco and alcohol combined with yoga can reduce the disease burden, particularly the risk of non-communicable diseases,” Jagdish Prasad, head of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in the Union health ministry, told DH.
The six districts identified for the pilot programme are Darjeeling (West Bengal), Gaya (Bihar), Lakhimpur-Kheri (Uttar Pradesh), Krishnanagar (Andhra Pradesh), Sundernagar (Gujarat) and Bhilwara (Rajasthan).
“Except Gaya, the programme has begun in other places. In Gaya, the training for the doctors was completed. We are now planning for large scale replication of this programme in other states,” he said.
The doctors practising Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy would be posted at the primary and community healthcare centres as the health ministry seeks to integrate the Indian systems of medicine with modern medicine from primary to the tertiary care. Some of the Ayush doctors would also be posted in the district hospitals.
Meanwhile, the second International Day of Yoga was celebrated with much fanfare from Birmingham to Birgunj and from Hanoi to Havana as the world drew energy from the power of the ancient Indian physical exercise.
The day was celebrated in more than 190 countries and the UN headquarters with lakhs twisting and turning their bodies in yoga postures.