MYSURU: Shivananda Kelur, the teacher, stretches his legs out in front, inhales and raises his arms above his head. Later, he exhales, bends forward and stretches his arms towards the toes.Scores of students bend and adopt the same stance. But this is not your typical yoga class. All these students are visually challenged.
Not just this. The students slide effortlessly on poles and ropes, swivelling their way to the top, and curling their limbs to attain astonishing postures. A casual onlooker is bound to notice this diverse group of students practising awe-inspiring yoga at this rural school in Karnataka: some of them have smiles that betray milk teeth, others are shy teenagers with a hint of soft bristles on the upper lip.
They are all students of Jnanasindhu Residential School, a school for visually impaired children that aims to empower the young minds and bodies through the ancient practice of yoga. The institute, situated at Holealur village in Ron taluk of Gadag district, was founded by Tulasamma Kelur, Rajyotsava awardee, and her son Shivananda N Kelur in 2010 with five visually challenged students. It now has 104 students — 56 boys and 48 girls — who are seeking to emerge as yoga champions, hoping to not just lead an independent life but to excel in their chosen vocation through the years ahead.
“Blind students need much more skills than the ‘normal’ people to lead a good and independent life,” says Shivananda, who thought of establishing the school one day when he saw a visually challenged student, who had passed his exams with distinction, begging on the street.“Visually challenged persons are marginalised,” he adds. The 39-year-old yoga practitioner and teacher was supported by his mother Tulasamma in his dream to start the school.
“She worked as an ayah in a private school before starting this school,” says Shivananda. “Even at this age (she is 67), she cooks food for the children and washes their clothes.”
The school aims to boost the self-esteem of the students through yoga classes, along with providing regular school education with special focus on cultural values and occupational training. The young learners have participated in various yoga competitions across the country, and even bagged awards at various national and international yoga competitions. A team from the school also emerged victorious at an international yoga event held in Bengaluru in 2012 by competing in the general category.
The residential school has received permission to enrol students from Classes 1 to 9. Most of the students belong to remote villages of Gadag, Bagalkot, Koppal, Ballari, Vijayapura, Davangere, and Belagavi districts. “Every year we visit about 200 villages across Karnataka and encourage parents to make their visually impaired children join our school,” says Shivananda.
The school offers free education, with emphasis laid on yoga and music. The regular curriculum is taught to the students by 12 teachers, who are also sight-impaired. Students practise yoga twice a day, with the training sessions getting longer ahead of competitions or events.
“Since our students are visually challenged, we teach them yoga through the ‘touch and feel’ method,” explains Shivananda. “Our students are the only team who climb Mallakambas with ease and perform rope yoga. They are familiar with almost all asanas, and also perform artistic yoga, which is based on Shivapurana’s ‘Natya Yoga’,” he adds.
The school is being run in a rented building, and Shivananda hopes that the state government will give a plot of land for it soon. The only aid it currently gets is sporadic donations from some individuals and organisations.
“We have received support from NEST Samsthe, Bengaluru, a not-for-profit organisation, and a few individuals have donated money for the school’s functioning,” says Shivananda.A major source of encouragement for him remains the involvement and enthusiasm displayed by the students. Some of them, like Vidya Thulasi, joined the institute as little children and have grown with the organisation.
Vidya, a Class 9 student, hails from Bagalkot district, and has been studying at the school right from the first standard. No wonder then that she freely expresses how happy and comfortable she feels at the place. “I have taken part in various yoga events and I learn many co-curricular activities along with the regular curriculum,” she says.
Manikanta Sanjeevappa, a student of Class 7 in the school, is also excited to talk about the ease with which he can perform various asanas. “I have learnt yoga from our master and can do it without much effort now,” he says, talking about the various competitions across the country that he has participated in. “I also study general knowledge, computer, science and mathematics,” Manikanta adds.
Local residents and officials also praise the change that the school is bringing about in the lives of the rural children.“I have seen the school from scratch and the mother-son duo faced several hurdles initially to offer education and food to these underprivileged students,” says Ravindra Bhat, assistant director, Water and Land Management Institute, and a resident of Dharwad. “We need to have empathy and not sympathy for these children,” he adds.
Shivananda is full of plans for the school that he wants to implement over the years. “We are planning to engage the students in agriculture based on the concept of music. I want these visually impaired students to be successful farmers by adopting the method of ‘Sangeetha Krishi’,” he says. “Today most youngsters want to be engineers or doctors, but I want our students to get involved in agriculture or horticulture and show the society that they can earn better by being farmers.”