New Delhi, Feb. 16: Students, teachers, soldiers and diplomats will do yoga for 30 minutes on a Sunday this June to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi send a "strong inspirational message" to the world.
A meeting last week, presided over by the minister for AYUSH - ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy - decided that International Yoga Day will be celebrated with a yoga session in nearly 13 lakh government schools, 32,000 colleges and 700 universities, Indian embassies across the world and cantonments.
For 30 minutes on June 21, a Sunday, the same set of asanas will be performed in sync across all these establishments, a source present at the meeting said.
Government servants might also find they have to go to work on a Sunday to work out, but there was no consensus at the meeting on making their participation mandatory, sources said.
The UN in December decided to designate June 21 as International Yoga Day, accepting a request made by Modi during his General Assembly address in September.
At an NCC rally on January 28, the Prime Minister asked the cadets to plan a unique nationwide celebration on the occasion and work towards a "record-setting performance" that would send a "strong inspirational message across the world". As the country in which yoga originated, "we should show the world that yoga can be an important component of a balanced, strong mankind", he said.
The AYUSH ministry was named the nodal ministry to coordinate with other departments and anchor the celebrations. Minister Shripad Yesso Naik presided over last week's meeting that was attended by officials from other ministries, including HRD, defence, external affairs and information and broadcasting, and institutions specialising in yoga education.
The ministry will bring out a brochure listing the asanas to be performed.
The Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga and Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA), a Bangalore-based deemed university, will train volunteers who will in turn train the students, teachers and other participants, the source said.
For the embassies, the external affairs ministry could prepare a film on the asanas and send it across.
Narayan V., a disciple of the legendary yoga guru BKS Iyengar, was sceptical of the plan.
"There is four months' time for preparation. But the success of yoga practices will depend on the quality of training they get. I doubt if the trainers, who would be given some crash course, can acquire the skill and impart it to students and others," said Narayan, who teaches at the Aditya Institute of Iyengar Yoga, Bangalore
"Any pose in yoga needs full concentration of mind and perfect body movement," he added.
Social activist Professor Shekhar Singh, who practises yoga, disapproved of the idea of compulsory yoga.
"I do yoga. It is a mind-based exercise. Unless your mind is in it, doing some asanas would serve no purpose," Singh said, adding the government should instead take steps to popularise yoga.
But at last week's meeting, there was near-unanimity on making the yoga session compulsory for students and teachers, a source said.
This would not be the first time Modi is getting schools to join such a campaign. His government had ordered CBSE schools to stay open on Gandhi Jayanti to participate in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, another pet project of the Prime Minister, and had later sought reports from the schools on the events they held.
The meeting last week discussed an emblem for the occasion. The AYUSH ministry will also develop a dedicated website.
SVYASA vice-chancellor G. Ramachandra Bhat said India had proposed June 21 as International Yoga Day because it is the longest day of the year.
The philosophy of yoga says yoga under sunlight can activate the body's vital internal system, Bhat said. "Yoga is done in the morning when the sun rises. The solar energy activates the body system."
