‘Yoga at school will help curb disease’

Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu has recommended that yoga be made a part of the school curriculum as more and more people are suffering from ill health because of lifestyle diseases.

Speaking this week after releasing a book, Yoga and Mindfulness: The Basics by yoga exponent Mansi

Gulati (Konark Publishers), Naidu said that while life had become easier with modern gadgets, it had brought with it issues like the sedentary lifestyle.

People have to adopt a “meaningful proportion in our activities”, Naidu said.

The vice-president said air conditioners, while conditioning the surrounding air, were also “conditioning the mind”.

“We can’t see the sun or the light, we can’t enjoy nature,” he said. People were going to doctors for vitamin D deficiency or lack of exposure to sunlight. “Food includes sunlight also,” he said.

The vice-president said physical activity used to be part of our daily routine.

“Literally there is no activity now and the effect is that diseases are cropping up,” he said.

He added that people were not in touch with nature and they were not exercising.

“Yoga has acceptance across the world and it has nothing to do with religion,” Naidu said. Anyone with any religion can practise yoga. It helped the mind and body work better, he added.

“I personally feel that yoga should be made part of the school curriculum.”