Official Says Participation in Yogandhra Exceeds 20 Million Target

In his report submitted to the cabinet committee headed by Human Resources minister Nara Lokesh and including Health minister Satya Kumar Yadav, Krishna Babu pointed out that 26.7 million people have already participated in the Yogandhra 2025 initiative launched by the government to promote yoga and raise awareness about its benefits within the public.

The special chief secretary (CS) said, “The target we set for the month-long Yogandhra starting May 21 had been 20 million participants. In the first week alone, 2.86 million people have registered to participate in the International Yoga Day on June 21. Of them, 26.7 million have already participated in the Yogandhra initiative so far.

Regarding registration of master trainers and trainers, Krishna Babu said they set the target for master trainers in the first week at 2,600. As of Tuesday, 10,609 master trainers (408 per cent of the target) have registered. Of them, 5,353 master trainers have completed their training. Additionally, nearly 100 per cent of the target for trainer registrations, totalling 125,000 have been met.

The special CS said as part of the Yogandhra 2025 initiative, programmes have been scheduled to take place in 26 districts with themes assigned to each district. In the first week alone, programmes have been successfully conducted in two districts, and yoga programmes have been held at eight of nine designated tourist centres.

West Godavari, Sri Sathya Sai and Chittoor districts lead in registrations, Krishna Babu said, mentioning that Visakhapatnam, Konaseema and Prakasam districts are lagging behind.

The special CS expressed optimism that with the positive public response to Yogandhra 2025 during the first week, the target set for this year’s International Yoga Day will be far exceeded.