New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project, International Yoga Day, has cost the government over Rs 32 crore, a reply to an RTI query has revealed.
“The total funds earmarked or spent by the AYUSH Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs were Rs 828.43 lakh for publicity through DAVP, DD and AIR, Rs 758.53 lakh on arrangements for mass yoga demonstration at Rajpath and Rs 182.8 lakh for the international conference on yoga at Vigyan Bhavan.
“The Ministry of External Affairs spent Rs 800 lakh. In addition, the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) and Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, incurred expenses of Rs 670 lakh as part of financial assistance to government institutions, NGOs for organising yoga camps and celebrations in each district,” AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik informed Lok Sabha.
He said that an amount of Rs 34.80 lakh has been spent on production of films and booklets on common yoga protocol. A two-day international conference on yoga was also organised on June 21-22.
The states were advised to hold mass yoga demonstration at state, district, block and panchayat levels.
He said CCRYN is in the process of establishing central research institute at six places with 100-bedded yoga and naturopathy hospital.
HRD Ministry has informed that the national curriculum framework 2005 which is a policy document for the country recommended yoga as an integral part of health and physical education. Health and Physical education is compulsory subject from class 1 to 10 and optional from class 11 to class 12, he said.
The minister said yoga education has been made compulsory part of study and practice by National Council for Teacher Education for its 15 teacher education programmes.
He said NCTE has already developed modules on yoga education for diploma in elementary education and master of education. These will be used by more than 18,000 teacher education institutions and above 14 lakh student-teacher educators.
The first International Yoga Day, held on June 21, saw Prime Minister Modi lead more than 35,000 people of 84 different nationalities at Rajpath, and countless others around the country and the world, through a series of asanas and pranayamas.
This feat, for which the capital had been preparing in a frenzy, went down in the Guinness Book of World Records for two distinctions — one for the largest gathering of yoga practitioners and another for the most number of nationalities performing together.
The aim, as declared by PM Modi at the UN General Assembly, in September 2014, was to propagate a “holistic approach to health and well being”.
India spends just 1% of its GDP on health, as compared to say 3% by China.
(With inputs from PTI)