Yoga sessions to begin at CGO complex today; Central government employees to participate

A photo exhibition on Yoga in Geneva

FROM today evening, Central government employees and their dependents will get Yoga lessons daily at CGO complex, one of many sarkari hubs in Delhi. Yoga training sessions that will be conducted in two batches are being organized by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) in association with an institute called Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) whose tagline is: Health, Harmony and Happiness for all through Yoga. This is in continuation of the government’s plan to organize Yoga training in as many as...
40 centers in and outside Delhi alone. Three months ago, personnel minister and MoS in the PMO Jintendra Singh said, the increasing accountability and rising expectation level in administrative work are taking a toll on bureaucrats, and therefore “in-house provisions for stress management are called for”.
And according to a DoPT’s official statement, organizing Yoga session will help bureaucrats maintain a “conducive frame of mind” and ensure a “harmonious well-being”.
In July last year, Central government employees also attended an unusual workshop on how to do Medical Yoga. For the record, Medical Yoga is a blend of modern science and classical Hatha Yoga, and the asanas are being widely used in the treatment of osteoarthritis, spondylitis of neck or lower back, Type 2 diabetes, bronchial/allergic asthma, frozen shoulder etc, according to information available in Wikipedia.
Significantly, many of Gujarat bureaucrats who were closely associated with prime minister Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of the state, became passionate about Yoga. For example, 1981 batch Gujarat cadre IAS Dr Hasmukh Adhia who is now Union secretary in the department of financial services, is a PhD in Yoga from Swami Vivekanand Yoga University, Bangalore.
As BoI had earlier analyzed, Yoga is not an alien subject in the government, the only difference being the level of emphasis that is attached by the NDA government. After all, Yoga forms a part of one of the government departments named AYUSH or Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy department. It came into existence during Narasimha Rao’s regime in 1990s, but was renamed as AYUSH in 2003 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister.
Also, a government-appointed panel headed by 1964-batch retired IAS Kiran Aggarwal recommended the inclusion of yoga and meditation in physical training of IAS probationers.