NEW DELHI: Yoga improves health and it will also be used for creating employment. Carrying on with the impetus provided by the International Day of Yoga being organised on Sunday across the country, the government intends to set up a yoga centre in all villages across the country and appoint a yoga teacher for them.
The Brainchild of AYUSH Minister Sripad Naik, the scheme — still on the drawing board — can help create lakhs of certified yoga teachers who would not only get monthly income, but also help people improve their health. If the scheme were to reach its logical conclusion, a yoga centre in over six lakh villages will help employ six lakh yoga teachers.
“We will soon set up a task force to examine how we can reach that target and what infrastructure and support it would require. After the task force submits its recommendations and provides a road map, we would approach the Prime Minister or Finance Minister for funds,” Naik told Express.
Himself a yoga practitioner for over 30 years, a habit he picked from the RSS, Naik says the idea can be worked out. “We will take help from yoga organisations and even consider having public-private partnerships,” the 63-year-old minister said, adding that the momentum created by the International Day of Yoga will have to be carried forward to enhance awareness at the grass-root level.
The minister’s vision is matched by industry projections. “The increased focus on yoga by the government, coupled with growing awareness about traditional Indian ways of dealing with stress in the corporate sector, has improved job opportunities in yoga training with commensurate demand for trainers set to grow by 30-35 per cent in a couple of years,” according to an ASSOCHAM paper released on Friday.
“Due to lifestyle stress, more and more people are taking to yoga, which requires trained teachers. With a high unemployment rate and increasing stress of everyday modern life, it is no surprise that the demand for yoga teachers has grown exponentially,” the paper added.