NCDC celebrates International Yoga Day

New Delhi, 21 June

The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) organized an online event today on the occasion of the International Yoga Day. Speaking at the event, Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar recalled that the credit for the International Yoga Day being observed every year on June 21 went to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had introduced the proposal in this regard in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. It was adopted by the Assembly after over 175 countries across the world passed a resolution in its favour, he said.

Agriculture Minister said, “Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that is helping people to lead a healthier lifestyle in the backdrop of Covid-19. The pandemic is not only affecting the physical health of people but is also impacting the psychological and mental health of the people who are being forced to live a restricted life.”

Hence, he further added, keeping ourselves mentally fit is very important. “When we are mentally fit, we can handle any crisis well. Amidst the Covid-19, Yoga is a ray of hope for all of us. It helps boost our immunity system, fight diseases while strengthening our mental well-being.”

Mr. Tomar also talked about the NCDC’s Ayushmaan Sahakar scheme launched last year with a focus on rural India. “It is a unique scheme aimed to improve health infrastructure facilities across the country, particularly rural health sector. In the next few years, credit to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore will be doled out under the scheme to reach out to the beneficiaries.”

Other speakers also participated in this online event. Guruji Dr HR Nagendra, Chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), the unique Global Yoga University of Bengaluru, spoke about how yoga can help bring in mindfulness, self-awareness, and numerous other health benefits for people in rural areas where the coronavirus has caused devastation, infecting many and claiming numerous lives.

Stressing on the need for adopting Covid-19 appropriate behaviour like the use of mask and social distancing norms, he advised to do yoga exercises daily for at least half an hour to improve the immunity of the body to fight the virus, the release said.

“We have seen that there is some degree of evidence presently to say that yoga practices could provide much-needed body immunity and assure a disease-free homeostatic state for the body,” Guruji said while adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has also given everyone a great opportunity to be at home with their family members — something not possible two years ago in the hectic life that people lived.

Speaking on the occasion, NCDC Managing Director Sundeep Nayak said that the importance of Yoga had increased during the pandemic and would help make people healthy, wealthy and wise.

Talking about the NCDC’s initiatives, Mr. Nayak said that the Corporation had launched a two-month-long yoga session online thrice a week from June 14 for its employees and members of cooperatives from across the country.

He said the yoga session is being held as part of the pact signed between the NCDC and S-VYASA last year. As per the agreement, the two organizations have also agreed to jointly set up yoga wellness centres and naturopathy facilities throughout the country with the help of local cooperatives.

Earlier, Lt Col Baljeet Singh, Chief Director of the Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC)-NCDC, while welcoming the guests, said that yoga is deep-rooted in India’s ancient system and its role has become all the more important in view of disturbance in daily life due to the Covid-19 crisis.

During the virtual event, Pawan Singh, the yoga guru from S-VYASA, held yoga classes for the benefit of numerous participants representing NCDC headquarters and its regional offices as well as the cooperatives societies across the country.