Jubilee Park, JP School Among Venues for Mass Sessions
Key Points:
- Thousands join collective yoga sessions across Jamshedpur parks and grounds on Sunday
- JP School Trust organises event at Birsa Munda Maidan starting 6:30 am
- Observance traces back to PM Modi’s 2014 UN proposal, backed by 177 nations
JAMSHEDPUR – Jamshedpur turned into a city of collective yoga practice on Sunday morning as residents marked International Yoga Day. Crowds began gathering at parks, sports grounds and public spaces across the city as soon as the sun came up.
Jubilee Park drew the largest turnout among the various venues. Children, young adults, women and senior citizens took part together in a mass yoga session held on the park grounds.
Meanwhile, yoga programmes were also organised in other parks and residential neighbourhoods throughout the city. Participants performed pranayama and a range of yogasanas, pledging to maintain healthier lifestyles going forward.
In addition, several social, cultural and religious organisations set up dedicated yoga camps for the occasion. Instructors at these camps explained yoga techniques and outlined associated health benefits to attendees.
On the other side of the city’s political landscape, workers from the Bharatiya Janata Party also took an active role in the day’s events. Collective yoga sessions were arranged across the party’s various local mandals.
However, organisers and participants noted that yoga has moved well beyond being a purely traditional practice. Growing public participation, they said, is steadily making it part of everyday life for many residents.
It is worth noting that the International Yoga Day observance originated from an Indian initiative. Prime Minister Narendra Modi first proposed it at the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.
The proposal subsequently received backing from 177 countries. It went on to become one of the most widely supported resolutions in United Nations history.
Meanwhile, June 21 was chosen for the observance because it marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Indian tradition assigns particular spiritual significance to this date.
The first International Yoga Day was then celebrated on June 21, 2015. Its popularity has continued to grow steadily in the years since.
DAV Public School in Bistupur also held its own mass yoga demonstration on Sunday, with hundreds of students and teachers taking part in an outdoor session on the school grounds. The programme there was conducted with discipline and active participation from both batches of students present.
Separately, the JP School Trust organised a large-scale yoga programme near its campus at Birsa Munda Maidan on Jay Prakash Nagar Shankosai Road, Number 5. The event began at 6:30 am and drew a sizeable turnout of local residents, students, parents and people from various sections of society, many attending with their families.
This year’s observance, the 12th edition of International Yoga Day, comes as district-level preparations had been underway in the city in the days leading up to Sunday. Similar enthusiasm was visible elsewhere in the country, with NCC cadets in Bengal and Sikkim also taking part in organised sessions ahead of the day.
The enthusiasm visible across Jamshedpur on Sunday reflects how yoga has increasingly become part of residents’ daily routines and lifestyles in recent years.
