Yoga groups in Mysuru have revved up their preparations after confirmation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the main International Day of Yoga on June 21 from the city.
A mass awareness drive will be conducted across the city and the region in the run up to the day so as to ensure greater participation by the public.
In addition, a series of rehearsals have been planned to ensure that there was synchronized movement of the participants performing yoga, said B.P. Murthy of Chaitanya Yoga Kendra, and founder member of Yoga Federation of Mysuru (YFM) Trust.
The public awareness drive is to not only participate during the yoga day event but to take up yoga as a form of exercise to boost one’s physical and mental fitness, he said. The YFM will conduct a mass yoga camp in association with the Department of Physical Education, University of Mysore, for a rehearsal on Sunday.
A series of 24 exercises have been prescribed for performance and the YFM has already prepared 500 master trainers who will conduct the camps across the city.
The federation had released the yoga day poster last week and had conducted a rehearsal with hundreds of participants. The rehearsals will continue and schools and educational institutions will also be roped in to encourage their students to take up to yoga as a form of physical fitness exercise, said the federation members.
Website launched
For the benefit of the public keen to participate in the event, a website – International Day of Yoga Mysuru 2022 has also been launched and for registration for the event one may visit www.idy2022.com.
Mr. Murthy said it will be the biggest yoga event to take place in Mysuru as it will reach millions of people across the globe and shore up the brand image of the city. ‘’Mysuru has over 300 yoga schools and institutions and this will give an impetus for people from all over the world to visit the city to learn yoga and thus fuel tourism as well,” said Mr.Murthy.
He said pre-COVID the yoga institutions in the city used to draw thousands of foreigners. But the pandemic forced the international yoga students to return to their respective countries. ‘’Now that there was a semblance of normalcy with greater coverage of vaccination, foreign students have begun to return and yoga schools are reporting about 20 per cent of their students are foreigners,’’ said Mr. Murthy.
While Mysuru has been finalised as the city for the lead event, the organisers are yet to decide on the local venue.
