GADAG: Leaving home is a rite of passage. And it is not easy to return. This is the story of youngsters everywhere. Lohit Kasar (38), an engineer and yoga trainer from Gadag, is on a mission — his message is simple: stay rooted, stay calm; jobs are where you are.
Lohit’s key tool kit is yoga. He conducts free yoga and meditation classes and spreads awareness on the pitfalls of migration mostly in rural parts of Gadag. Lohit has been encouraging youths to take up agriculture in a big way and the asanas are an aid to stay focused.
Lohit went to Bengaluru like other engineering graduates, but was attracted towards yoga after he came in contact with some of the staff of the Art of Living organisation. He joined the Youth Leadership and Training programme and started teaching yoga for free in his spare time. Now Lohit has given free yoga training programmes in nearly 200 villages of Gadag district and given free Sudarshan Kriya, Meditation, Pranayam and yogasana sessions in Bengaluru, Belagavi, Chikmagalur, Haveri and other places.
Lohit has been interested in yoga while studying 6th standard and joined classes in his school days at Gadag. While he was studying engineering, he saw many youths from North Karnataka who come from rural areas to work for less salaries even though they have agriculture land and employment opportunities in their native places. After engineering, Lohit started his own consulting solution firm. He wanted to visit villages and create awareness about migration and teach yoga. He approached various gram panchayats and took permissions and organised a series of yoga classes and awareness sessions.
The migration awareness programmes along with yoga sessions have opened up new paths for several youths who used to work in Bengaluru and other cities.
Mallikarjun Shigli, one of the youths who attended Lohit’s sessions, has started sandalwood cultivation in his village. Gangadhar Hiremath, another youth, started selling cow dung dhoophas and other products.
Sadanand Ramannavar, Manjunath Doddamani and Manjunath Dambal started dairy farming and agriculture with new techniques after the migration awareness programme by Lohit and his team.
Lohit had begun to give free yoga training in government schools since 2002 and now he has visited hundreds of schools in the district. Lohit takes yoga classes in private schools and organisations and collects fees. The same fees will be used to go to villages to conduct free sessions and for his team’s expenditure.
Now hundreds of students who learnt yoga from him are also creating awareness about migration and native employment opportunities.
Lohit got a good response after Covid-19 as many lost jobs in cities. After the Covid-19 first wave, Lohit and team instilled confidence among rural youth and organised hundreds of free yoga camps in 2020 and 2021.
Sachin Desai, a PU student from KVSR College of Gadag who learnt from Lohit, said, “I was very shy before I learnt yoga from Lohit. He instilled confidence in us by teaching all asanas, meditation techniques, including Sudarshan Kriya. He took us to many programmes and trained how to lead a group and show meditation techniques. He convinced many rural youths to be at their native places and take up agriculture. Now I am an extrovert and mingle with all. I am also teaching yoga to rural students.”
Vadiraj Koujalagi, founder, The Humanity Trust of Betageri, said, “We have organised some programmes under the guidance of Lohit. Many people liked his training and we are thankful to Lohit and team as they came and charged no fees but trained many children, youngsters and senior citizens on how to do Sudarshan Kriya and meditation. The residents of Health camp at Betageri are demanding to organise Satsang and meditation programmes by Lohit and his team. We are also planning to take the team to some old-age homes and train senior citizens there.”
Mallikarjun, a student, said, “Lohit first visited our village Dambal for yoga and he used to tell about the pitfalls of migration and perks of local job opportunities. That was before Covid-19 and we thought about coming back but still we did not want to lose the job we got. Then there was lockdown and we came back to Dambal from Bengaluru. Lohit guided us to take free yoga classes and told us to work in our own village. I started dairy farming. Now I am earning good money.”
Lohit said, “I saw many rural residents who were worried because they cannot afford yoga coaching and decided to start free coaching. I first started in Gadag and slowly moved to rural areas with my team. We got good support from many villagers and we took this opportunity to create awareness about youth migration and we got good results. Now I have a team and we all teach free yoga and Sudarshan Kriya to all interested.”