Panaji: The Congress on Saturday demanded that the State Education department withdraw its circular making it compulsory for school students and teachers to attend Yoga Day programmes.
The Directorate of Education has instructed all schools to hold Yoga sessions on Sunday, June 21, which is celebrated as International Yoga Day.
In a statement, state Congress chief Girish Chodankar said, "Yoga is a personal choice, and should never become a compulsory obligation."
"Sunday is the only day many families spend together. It is also a day of prayer and religious observance for many communities across Goa," he said, adding that parents should have the freedom to decide how their children spend their weekly holiday.
Responding to Chodankar's statement, Goa BJP Medical Cell's co-convenor Dr Sneha Bhagwat said that it was "sad and unfortunate" that the circular was being politicised, and pointed out that a student can attend a yoga session at any place near their house.
"Yoga is for health, wellbeing, mental and emotional stability which is a very much a necessary right for students," she said.
More than 193 countries have accepted yoga and over 300 research papers have established that a daily 20-minute yoga practice can improve life expectancy and the quality of life "by 70 per cent", Bhagwat said.
Research has also established that yoga can prevent 90 per cent of idiopathic diseases (where the exact cause is not known), she claimed.
Bhagwat further claimed that the circular did not say that students should attend a Yoga Day program only at school. "It only expects that you attend a yoga session in any place close to you," she said.
