Trainees turn trainers; take up profession independently

Mysore/Mysuru: It is pretty accurate to say Yoga has taken Mysuru by storm as the popularity of the practice is visible in the sheer number of Yoga performers in the last eight years.

Ever since Yoga got international recognition after the United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014, from the earlier average of 10,000 daily performers, it has grown to over 75,000, which underlines the relative newness of the interest.

Though Yoga is an unorganised sector, it has seen exponential growth. Mysuru was known for Yoga even before the UN declaration. But after 2014, it has grown in leaps and bounds and the numbers indicate that there are 75,000 people who perform Yoga regularly at various locations in Mysuru, be it educational institutions, Yoga Schools and under

individual Yoga trainers who have years of experience.

There are more than 3,000 Yoga teachers and students affiliated with the Mysuru Yoga Federation. Also, Yoga has turned out to be a lucrative career for many. The trainees become trainers after some years and they formally get training from AYUSH Department through certified courses and take up Yoga professionally at educational institutions.

Yoga Federation of Mysore President and GSS Foundation Head D. Srihari told Star of Mysore that apart from formal Yoga trainers, there are hundreds of trainers who have got practical training and have years of experience. Earlier, there would be hardly 100 or 120 Yoga trainers and today we have over 700 to 800 schools including individual trainers and large-scale Yoga trainers. Each school has a minimum of two to three teachers, he added.

The Federation has over 250 members. “A heartening factor is that many schools that did not have Yoga as an activity are now having dedicated daily Yoga classes for students and there are more than 450 educational institutions that have dedicated full-time Yoga teachers. Also, Yoga is being taught in gyms. There are over 400 gyms in Mysuru and Yoga is taught as part of the exercise session,” Srihari revealed.

“The scope of Yoga development has increased with many trainees becoming trainers and they are even going to other places taking their knowledge. Every year, there is an increase of 20 percent in Yoga performers. From the first-year crowd of 10,000, we have reached the 55,000 mark and crossed the 1 lakh mark too. Last year, we had more than one lakh participants online due to COVID,” he said.

Some of the prominent institutions that train Yoga enthusiasts including foreign students are Sri Pathanjali Yoga Shikshana Samithi, Yoga Sports Foundation, Mysuru Yoga Okkuta, Bharath Swabhiman Trust, GSS Yoga, Mysuru Yoga Association, Krishna Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Institute, Vedavyasa Foundation, Bharath Shetty Yoga and Nirvana Yoga Shaale.

The COVID pandemic affected Yoga classes for foreign students and now they have started looking up. During the pre-COVID period, there used to be at least 1,000 to 1,500 foreigners learning Yoga in Mysuru. Now all those who have been enrolled during the COVID period are being trained. “A lot depends on Government’s International flight policies,” he added.