Hold mass yoga sessions: UGC to universities

BHUBANESWAR: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all universities to conduct mass yoga demonstrations on their respective campuses to mark International Yoga Day on June 21.
In a letter sent on Friday, the commission urged the universities to plan programmes and activities for the successful observance of the day. It has also asked the varsities to follow the common yoga protocol (CYP) 2019 received from the ministry of AYUSH.
The objective of this exercise is to make participants aware of the immense benefits that the pursuit of yoga can bring to an individual, and inspire them to continue the practice of yoga beyond the Yoga Day, the letter said.
The staff, teachers and students will have to participate and upload photographs or videos of the events conducted in their institutions on the UGC's university activity monitoring portal. Similarly, the universities can issue directions to its affiliated colleges and institutions to observe the day.
The letter said the event will be held between 7am and 8am on June 21. The theme of this year's Yoga Day is climate action. The celebration was started in the year 2015 to promote yoga across the world.
The day will be observed by millions of people across the world at thousands of venues. When the participation of people is on such a massive scale, there has to be some serious planning behind it, if the demonstration is to be in harmony. So, the AYUSH ministry has come out with a CYP prepared by the most accomplished yoga gurus of India. It is a specified sequence of yoga asanas of 45-minute duration.
The ministry has made a video and an e-book on CYP. People can go through its website and view or download the video. "Yoga is helpful for everybody. We should practice it every day. We will observe the day in our university on June 21," said a senior professor of Utkal University.