Yoga in schools criticized
7 Jan 2009

MANGALORE: The state government's plan to make yoga a compulsory part of physical education for the students in the state, has drawn flak from experts here.
Questioning the rationale behind the decision, they have urged the government to conduct a detailed, long-term and controlled study on the effects of yoga on children and solicit the views of students, parents, medical experts, sportsmen and physical education trainers to evolve a consensus on the issue. Yoga for all children should not be made compulsory under any circumstances, they asserted.

Information on the subject was obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI) by Dr B S Kakkilaya, physician, Prof Narendra Nayak, president, Federation of Indian Rationalists Associations and Dr K S Madhava Rao, psychiatrist.

According to the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) it has been proposed to include five yoga classes a week for students of Std I to V, three classes a week for Std VI to VII and for four classes a week for Std VIII to X, with both theory and practice, followed by regular tests and evaluations on the subject, right from the Std I. The directorate has also said that 65,000 teachers at a cost of Rs 4.55 crore will be appointed for this purpose.

They said that although there have been some short-term, open studies involving a few subjects on the benefits and adverse effects of different forms of yoga, there were no large, long-term, double blind, randomized, controlled studies to support the claims that the practice of yoga was useful or totally safe.

Moreover, the state DSERT had also not conducted any studies on the benefits or ill-effects of yoga on the physical and mental well-being of children.

Also, with the present day education being a burden on the children, the introduction of yoga as a proper subject may burden them further, they observed. Conceding that while there was an urgent need to promote different sports in schools and colleges to the improve country's standing in an event like the Olympics, they said the decision to allot so much time for yoga alone may further compromise the sporting standards.