Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said his government intends to make yoga a mass movement and will scale up the ongoing "Dilli Ki Yogshala" programme from 500-600 daily sessions to 5,000-6,000 sessions.
Interacting with trainers under the programme, Kejriwal said yoga is not a daylong affair for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and it intends to scale it up radically.
"We will now replicate the model and scale it up from the current 500-600 classes to 5,000-6,000. Our beneficiaries would go up from 30,000 to lakhs of citizens," he said.
The government will strive to ensure that there is a functioning yoga class in every Delhi neighbourhood, so that people get access to free training at their doorstep, the chief minister added.
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The Delhi government wants to make yoga a mass movement in the national capital through the free training programme, which is a first-of-its-kind experiment in the country, he noted.
Under the "Dilli Ki Yogshala" programme, the AAP government provides free trainers to groups of people desiring to attend yoga classes. These classes are currently being conducted at over 500 places across the national capital.
"People are giving a fantastic response to the classes. They are witnessing a physical and mental transformation. Had the instructors not been top-notch, this would not have been possible," Kejriwal said.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the chief minister has a dream that every Delihiite would practise yoga.
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"It is one thing to do yoga and talk about yoga on International Day of Yoga and quite another to ensure the doorstep delivery of yoga at someone's house or in a park," he said.
There was a lot of emphasis on the training of the yoga instructors as they require to interact with people.
Therefore, they were also trained in soft skills and personality development, Sisodia added.
