Ayush Task Force to spread awareness

A high level official panel, headed by a Bengalurean, would soon suggest the steps that the NDA government needs to take for promoting yoga to the grass-root without diluting the quality of training.

The Union ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy has set up a task force under the chairmanship of H R Nagendra – vice chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandha Samasthana and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal yoga guru – to find out the ways to promote and regulate yoga.

“The regulations are necessary to standardise the yoga practices and bring authenticity to the yoga teachers,” Nagendra told Deccan Herald.

The task force has given time till September  to submit its report based on which actions would be taken, said Nilanjan Sanyal, secretary in the Ayush Ministry. Standardising the yoga techniques and improving the quality of teachers are the two key issues that the Nagendra panel is examining.

Creation of a centralised database for trained yoga teachers is another option, which the Nagendra panel is looking at. Last year, a concept note was circulated on the ways to regulate and promotion of yoga and naturopathy for people’s wellness.

While Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattishgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal have their own registration system, the central government only has a guideline that came out in 2006 after the Central Council on Indian Medicine did not approve any separate regulations for yoga.

To address the trained manpower issue, the National Council for Teachers Education decided to include yoga in teacher training modules.

On Sunday, the NCTE launched the yoga syllabus for B.Ed teachers, Nageandra said. Gradually more modules on teacher’s training would include yoga.

“Once the celebrations are over, steps have to be taken to bring yoga into our education system. Moreover, yoga can be used as an adjunct to modern medical system to deal with diabetes,” said Nagendra, a trained mechanical engineer from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, who later shifted towards yoga.

At the yoga conference, Prime Minister Modi and Ayush Minister Shripad Yesso Naik also stressed on the use of yoga in preventing and managing non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension, which are on the rise in India.