Rare Yoga saga of Kunnamthanam

Karthyani, 82, and her friends had been eagerly waiting for June 21, the International Yoga Day, for
which they participated in the mass drill. Karthyani is one of the many from the Kunnamthanam
village of the Pathanamthitta District of Kerala who had been practicing yoga since 2017, when the
village has been declared the first complete yoga village in India. With the collective efforts of the
people of the village and with the interest of the gram panchayath, the whole village has been
continuing its yoga practice for the past three years.

This effort of the Kunnamthanam gram panchayath was backed by Pranav Yoga Centre, Tiruvalla. An
average of 3500 people participated in the Yoga sessions in 2017 when the village was declared a
complete yoga village and now according to the number calculated by the gram panchayat there are
15382 people taking part. The village achieved this unparalleled triumph by teaching yoga at least a
member in a family and thus making the village the first complete yoga village in the country.

Yoga practice is being conducted at 32 centres in the 15 wards of the panchayat. Maintaining health
and having a check on lifestyle diseases was the focus of the propaganda which attracted the public
to join the Yoga practice. M.G. Dileep, the Director and the chief yoga instructor of Pranav Yoga
Centre responded: “In the beginning there were less than 10 people to practice yoga in some of the
centres, but as the practice sessions moved on, hundreds of people flocked in to practice and some
centres have more than 700 people practicing yoga now. People who had issues with blood sugar,
cholesterol and BP levels started experiencing the decline in these. This brought more and more
people for yoga, ” to the Beacon.

It is for the first time that a village in India trains its inhabitants yoga freely for their wellbeing.
Following the example set by Kunnamthanam 100 more gram panchayats in Kerala in collaboration
with the Ministry of Ayush and the State Health Ministry are preparing to be 100 percent yoga
villages.

International Day of Yoga Poster Credits: Twitter@ Ministry of Ayush