Yoga's crisis

As preparations get underway to celebrate the third International Yoga Day on June 21, a paper by ASSOCHAM says India today faces a shortage of about 300,000 yoga instructors. The demand stands at over 500,000. The scope of yoga as a career option is “wide”, says the paper, with “opportunities to work in nature resorts to schools, to fitness centres to your own studios to even becoming personal yoga instructors of celebrities”. The paper adds that the demand for yoga teachers is at an all-time high in South East Asia and India has emerged as one of the biggest yoga teacher exporters to South East Asia as well as China. An estimated 3,000 Indian yoga instructors teach in China and most of them belong to Haridwar and Rishikesh, regarded as the yoga capitals of the country.