Free yoga classes – how BMC plans to boost the immunity of Mumbaikars

The BMC is looking for instructors to conduct free yoga classes at 24 locations across Mumbai to help Mumbaikars boost their immunity.

Image for representation | ANI

Mumbai: Preventative healthcare — that’s the buzzword Mumbai’s civic body has been using to promote its initiative to teach yoga to the city’s residents, free of cost. Officials believe these yoga lessons will help shore up Mumbaikars’ defences not just against Covid-19, but also diabetes and hypertension.

To realise its ambitious objective of boosting the immunity of Mumbaikars, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to hold yoga classes at 24 spots across the city and is now scouting for yoga instructors to run these classes.

The classes, one in every administrative ward, will be known as Shiv Yoga Kendra.

BMC’s executive health officer Mangala Gomare told ThePrint that the yoga classes will be conducted five days a week either at BMC-run schools, marriage halls, ward offices or any open public space.

“There will be 30 people per batch. And for people to register, the BMC will either give out an email id or an app will be developed for the same. Once we have the numbers, the ward level officer will decide the place and time of the classes,” she said.

“We have seen how people were affected during the pandemic and whenever such kind of disasters happen, we realise some preventive care is necessary,” Gomare added.

Mumbai was among Indian cities worst affected throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Now, even non-communicable diseases are going up, including diabetes, hypertension. And ultimately, immunity matters. In the backdrop of all of this, we thought preventive health care needs attention,” said Gomare.’

Instructors to be paid Rs 1,000 per session

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation published a notice Saturday seeking out certified yoga instructors or institutions interested in working with the civic body for setting up and operating the Shiv Yoga Kendra.

“The BMC plans to hire 100 teachers first after scrutinising the applications and will start these centres between June and July this year. All the sessions will be free of cost and open to all citizens,” a BMC official told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that the civic body held an informal meeting with reputed yoga institutes from across the city in May this year, seeking their suggestions on the project.

According to the notice, the BMC will appoint a selection committee in each of the 24 wards to scrutinise applications sent by yoga instructors and institutions. Members of the committee will hire yoga instructors based on these applications.

Eligibility criteria for applicants in the case of yoga instructors is a minimum two-year affiliation with the Yoga Certification Board or the Quality Control of India or the Indian Yoga Association.

If hired, each yoga instructor will be paid Rs 1,000 per session.

The BMC had first mentioned its plans of setting up free yoga classes in the city in February this year as part of its annual budget for 2022-23. An allocation of Rs 30 crore had been set aside for the project, with the aim of eventually opening 200 “yoga centres”.

India’s richest civic body with an annual budget of  Rs 45,949.21 crore (for 2022-23), the BMC is expected to go to polls later this year.

Until March, the Shiv Sena had a majority in the BMC. It was only when the term of the incumbent general body ended that the Maharashtra government led by CM Uddhav Thackeray had to appoint Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal as the civic body’s administrator.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)