Yoga army looks to tap wellness industry, but certification checks needed

The government is creating a pool of employable yoga professionals with the greater involvement of the likes of Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar

Ever since the United Nations announced June 21 as World Yoga Day in 2015, Narendra Modi's government has moved aggressively to ensure rules regarding the ancient practice are made and shaped in India. The government announced the ‘Yoga Professionals Scheme’ coinciding with the first World Yoga Day. Since then, the government says on an average some three people have been certified as a ‘Yoga Professional’ every day. The government also says it has certified, through private agencies, more than 3,000 people as yoga instructors in about three years. But the actual number could be well above that. The certifications were previously validated by the Quality Council of India, an autonomous body headed by former McKinsey chairman Adil Zainulbhai, who was nominated by PM Modi a few months after he come to power in 2014. But now the right to certify has been taken away from Zainulbhai-led QCI. From March 2018, the certification is to be handled by Moraji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY). Also, a Yoga Certification Board has been established. Dr Ishwar Basvaraddi, the director of MDNIY, will be acting as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the board. Dr Basvaraddi told Business Standard, “In many ways 2015 was a watershed moment for yoga in the country. For the first time we evolved a common protocol for the practice of yoga. There are so many schools with so many different methods of teaching that it was important to evolve a common code for everyone.”

According to the AYUSH Ministry’s document detailing the scheme for certification of yoga professionals, “It has been also felt that there is a mushrooming of yoga experts whose credentials are not verifiable and therefore there is an urgent need to introduce a robust system of evaluation and certification of yoga professionals based on international best practices to enhance their credibility and for marketing and popularising Yoga globally.”

In addition to this, there is a growing market for wellness in India, with the government building a pool of employable professionals who can earn a living by practising the ancient art. A 2017 ASSOCHAM study estimated that there was a shortage of over 3,00,000 yoga instructors in India. The study noted, “The scope of yoga as career is a wide canvas from opportunities to work in nature resorts to schools, to fitness centres to your own studios to even becoming personal yoga instructors of celebrities. Fitness institutes, yoga ashrams, and independent certified yoga therapist, offer a number of yoga courses from short-term introductory courses to long-term courses, to those for becoming yoga instructors. The footfalls to these places have witnessed a quantum increase, and yoga’s image has changed from traditional and uninteresting to that of being trendy.”

The study found there was a tremendous demand for yoga teachers in South East Asia and China, with more than 3,000 Yoga teachers, primarily from Haridwar and Rishikesh, working in China alone.

With MDNIY at the helm, the demand for 'Certified in India' tag among yoga practitioners may further shoot up. Dr Basavraddi asserted that his job was not just to certify yoga teachers but also to conduct training with the help of people such as Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar and Patanjali owner Ramdev. “The wellness industry is growing. Our aim is to make it lucrative for people to take this up as a profession. These days people in cities are willing to pay money to learn Yoga. Even in neighbourhood parks, you can hold a yoga camp and people will pay Rs 100 for a session” said Dr Basvaraddi.