Engineers, management postgraduates and doctors filled 97% seats of yoga courses at Barakatullah University in Bhopal, indicating the rising employability range of the ancient Indian mind-body discipline.
Yoga has become a sought-after college course following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s global push to popularise the exercise and meditation routine.
The seats for four courses of yoga have almost been filled in the first phase of admission. This enrolment rush surprised authorities at the popular university, where seats for latest courses such as remote sensing, environmental science, genetics, geo-informatics, and cyber law were still vacant.
“Governments at the Centre and state are paying special attention to yoga. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that a yoga teacher will be appointed every government school. Other states too have made similar announcements. We are expecting a boom in the demand for yoga teachers,” engineering student Rahul Sharma said, referring to his choice.
Professionals too are heading for yoga for a better future.
“I am a physical trainer. I am waiting for a permanent job as a physical training (PT) teacher, but the government’s emphasis on PT has changed. Now, it is focusing only on yoga. So I have to change my field for a better job opportunity,” said a PT teacher.
Besides job opportunities, people opt for yoga for personal development too, explained Sadhna Dauneria, the university’s yoga department head.
{{/usCountry}}Besides job opportunities, people opt for yoga for personal development too, explained Sadhna Dauneria, the university’s yoga department head.
{{/usCountry}}“Candidates are showing a keen interest in yoga courses … 125 of the 130 seats had been filled already. About 40% of the students are engineers, management postgraduates, ayurvedic and homeopathic doctors. The response has been good over the past two years. This year it exceeded our expectations.”
The university didn’t do any additional publicity for yoga, yet the yoga department received the highest number of applications.
“We published the same advertisement for all courses. But yoga defeated humanities, commerce and even some latest science courses in the admission process. Enhancement in employability seems to be a major factor,” university registrar HS Tripathi said.