Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Apr 23: In a unique new initiative from April 1, Government of India has, through the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), started Yoga Sessions for Central Government employees at 26 locations in Delhi and 48 locations in 8 cities across the country including Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Nagpur, Dehradun, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
This was disclosed here today by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The initiative has proved highly successful and is being carried out with the assistance and association of Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, he informed.
In reply to a query as to whether the office working hours, which require the employees to report by 9 am,would not create a problem in carrying forward the Yoga Sessions, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the sessions are being conducted in two sessions in the morning from 6:30 am to 7:30 am and 7:30 am to 8:30 am respectively and again in another two sessions in the evening from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm and 5:30 pm to 6:30 PM respectively. But, these sessions are optional not mandatory, and are meant not only for the office-going employees but also for the members of their families. On Sundays and gazetted holidays, however, the sessions are not held, he added. Moreover, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) has nominated Nodal Officers, who have been instructed to suitably adjust timings of the sessions depending upon the requirements and convenience of the participants, he said.
Describing the response to this new initiative as highly encouraging, Dr Jitendra Singh said, currently on an average over 14,000 individuals are benefitting from this scheme per day and the number of participants is increasing with each passing day. This is evident from the figures which point out that on the first day, that is on April 1, while only 349 people participated in the sessions across Delhi, by April 20, the number had increased to over 750 thus recording an increase of over 120%. By June 21, which has been declared as International Yoga Day by UNO on the suggestion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, it can be expected that majority of Central Government employees across the country would be availing the benefit of these Yoga Sessions.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that while focussing on “maximum governance with minimum government”, DoPT is also taking every care to make the work environment of the employees more comfortable and less stressful, and the latest initiative with regard to Yoga Sessions is also one such step in this direction. He further informed that in the three states of Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, DoPT has started Induction training programmes for freshly recruited employees of the state government and there too, stress management has been included as one of the components of the programme capsule.
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