Yoga Asanas To Be Recognised As Sport, May Be Included in Olympics
Yoga Asana may be recognised by
India Government as a sport and in due course may be included as an event in
Olympics by 2036 or 2040, according to PN Ranjit Kumar, Joint Secretary,
Ministry of AYUSH, Govt of India.National Board for Promotion and Development
of Yoga and Naturopathy has recommended recognizing yoga asanas (poses) as a
sporting activity. This was revealed during the 6th India Wellness Conclave
2019-Nurturing the Wellness Industry for a Healthier and Happier India,
organised by FICCI.
"Yoga asanas (not yoga)
should be recognized as a sport. We are hopeful that yoga asana will be
accepted as a sport and maybe by the time we have the Olympics in 2036 or 2040,
this will be an item there," he said, adding there were very few sports of
eastern, Asian or Indian origin in the international sports arena.
With India targeting to become a $5 trillion
economy by 2024, Mr Kumar said that the contribution of Wellness industry is
poised to be $50 billion at current growth rate. However, we should aim for a
faster growth to make it $100 billion industry and centre of new India growth
story, he added.
Highlighting yoga was gaining
popularity world over, Mr Kumar said that while there were 85 lakhs people who
participated on the International Day of Yoga in 2016, it rose to 2.8 crore in
2017, 9.5 crore in 2018 and 13 crore in 2019 as per the provisional figures.
"These are people who follow the yoga
protocol on their own without compulsion. It's not about yoga. It's about
wellness, about maintaining one?s own health, taking care of self and about a
happier India," he said. The government is setting up Naturopathy
Certification Board on the lines of Yoga Certification Board, he added.
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