AYUSH Ministry launches app to help people locate yoga centres, instructors

Ahead of International Yoga Day on June 21, the AYUSH Ministry has launched a mobile application to enable people to locate yoga events, centres providing training and instructors.

Yoga locator- a map-based location app - will also enable yoga instructors to register themselves and reach out to a large number of people, a senior official of the ministry said.

"People want to know where they can go for yoga training or to pursue a yoga course. This app 'yoga locator' will help them locate yoga centres as well as yoga instructors within the preferred radius of their vicinity. Their aim is to encourage and help more and more people to adopt yoga," he said.

It will be a permanent app, which will give information to people about yoga activities happening in their vicinity throughout the year, the official said.

It is estimated that there are more than two lakh yoga instructors in the country.

International Yoga Day will be celebrated on June 21 across the globe and the AYUSH Ministry has shortlisted five cities -- Delhi, Shimla, Mysore, Ahmedabad and Ranchi -- for holding the main function this year.

It will be the government's first mega public event after Narendra Modi became prime minister for a second term.

The names of the four cities have been sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and it will finalise the venue of the main function for International Yoga Day, official sources said.

In the run-up to the event, a two-day Yoga Mahotsav is being organised in Delhi by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga and it started on Saturday.

It will be attended by about 10,000 people, including yoga teachers, professionals, enthusiasts among others.

"The aim is to build an atmosphere of yoga in the run-up to the main event and sensitise the people about the June 21 function," the official said.

Vice-Chairman of NITI AYOG, Rajeev Kumar inaugurated the Yoga Mahotsav and stress on popularising the yogic culture through the medium of social media.

"Yoga teaches us to live with nature rather than conquering it, that makes 'Vasudhaiv Kutubkam' possible and we live with harmony and peace," he said.

Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) Shripad Yesso Naik dubbed International Yoga Day as the biggest mass movement for health and wellness.

"Natural and traditional medicine system is flourishing not only in India but across the globe," he said and assured that the ministry is committed towards the research and development of Yoga, Ayurveda and other natural and traditional medicinal systems.

The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 after Modi called for the day to be adopted as a global celebration of yoga, an ancient practice that began in India more than 5,000 years ago.

Last year, the main event of the International Day of Yoga was held at the ground of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, in which Prime Minister Modi participated.

The first International Yoga Day celebration was organised at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015, in which representatives of 191 countries took part. In 2016, the main function was held in Chandigarh and in 2017 it was held in Lucknow.