New Delhi (NVI): The Sports Ministry today formally recognised yogasana as a competitive sport, which will enable it to avail government funding.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and Minister of AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik formally promoted yogasana as a competitive sport during a joint press conference held in New Delhi.
The move was made to encourage yoga, spread awareness about its benefits and to help improve physical and mental wellbeing of the people.
Kiren Rijiju said during the event, “Yogasana has been a competitive sport for a long time. But it has to be recognised by the Government of India so that it becomes an official and recognised competitive sport.”
The Sports Minister also said yogasana will be inducted in future Khelo India Games programme.
“It’s popularity will not doubt increase in India and we will include it in the Khelo India School and University Games,” Rijiju said.
While addressing, Shripad Naik traced the origins of Yogasana competitions to the Indian Yoga tradition, where such competitions have been held for centuries
He said that they are still being conducted today at multiple levels, but a strong and sustainable structure to impart national visibility to the competitions is yet to emerge.
The minister also said that Yogasana is an integral and important component of Yoga, which is psycho-physical in nature and popular across the globe for its efficacy in fitness and general wellness.
He further said “Yogasana becoming a sport will also ensure new technologies and new strategies being inducted into the disciplines, to benefit our athletes and officials towards building fruitful and fulfilling careers in this field”.
An International Yogasana Sports Federation was formed under the presidentship of yoga guru Baba Ramdev with DR HR Nagendra as secretary general in November last year.
For competitions, 51 medals have been proposed in four events and seven categories in the sport.
Events proposed include traditional yogasana, artistic yogasana (single and pair) , rhythmic yogasana (pair, free flow/group yogasana), individual all round-championship and team championship.
-CHK
