Soon, an app to help locate yoga coaches, schools

NEWDELHI: A mobile-based application to help users locate certified yoga instructors and institutes located near them has been commissioned by the Ayush ministry, which regulates alternative systems of medicine.

The app will list instructors and i nstitutes validated by experts of the Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN) under the ministry. Instructors and institutes interested in getting certified will have to apply to the ministry.

“People want to learn yoga but they don’t know where to go. This app will help people locate an authentic place within their radius and ensure they don’t fall prey to people who claim to be experts but i n reality are untrained frauds,” said Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, Ayush. Ayush has two yoga-specific apps to provide information on International Yoga Day (IYD) events. The Bhuvan Yoga app was launched last year to map the number of people participating in the IYD. This app is not open to the public and was specifically created for use on the IYD.

“This new app, in a way, will be an improvised version of the yoga-locator app. Our vendor had floated the proposal and we have sent out an expression of interest for interested parties to create the app for us. It will work on both Android and IOS systems. It will be ready by the end of the year,” said PN Ranjit Kumar, joint secretary, Ayush.

Instructors hail the move. “If the trainer is not experienced or properly trained, learners may end up performing wrong postures that can be harmful to the body... and wrong meditation can lead to energy loss rather than energy gain,” said Neetu Sharma, yoga therapist at the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga.