VISAKHAPATNAM: Soon yoga and meditation may well be made mandatory in government schools across the state, if some ayurvedic experts have their way and chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is a willing ally.

Alarmed at the rising physical and psychological ailments among school-going children due to lack of proper physical activities and the stress and anxiety they are subjected to in these times of cut-throat competition, a group of ayurvedic physicians from the city is planning to approach the CM with this proposal.

V Susheela, a doctor from Sree Ayurvedic Hospital, said, "We approached corporator Venkat Rao regarding this proposal and he has advised us to put forth the proposal to the CM through the local MLA. Given the physical, psychological and behavioural problems that school-children are undergoing, we feel there's a need to introduce yoga and pranayama from standard VI onwards daily in a 40-minutes class."

"Headache, backache, irritability and sleeplessness among children have become common. With outdoor sports missing in most schools due to lack of playgrounds, there's no proper channel for relieving pent-up stress and anxiety, pushing children towards substance abuse or anti-social behaviour. Their conduct towards the opposite sex also requires refinement. This is where yoga and meditation can be of great help," she said, pointing out the instance of Rajesh (name changed) an eight standard student of a corporate school, who had to miss school for nearly a month recently due to severe gastric problems, stress-related depression and was also diagnosed with diabetes.

Principal of Government Ayurvedic College, Satya Prakash, said, "The Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) department can take the matter for consideration with the government as it would be a good move to introduce the subject in school curriculum. Yoga can be introduced from the fifth standard in schools. It would help improve blood circulation to the brain, improve memory and learning capacity of children besides enabling them cope with stress and anxiety."

Agreeing that yoga would be helpful, AP commissioner of Ayush K P Srivasuki said schools would need to deploy qualified yoga trainers. He also agreed to extend support by training school counsellors in short-term yoga courses who in turn can teach their students. "Even if it may not be feasible to send our trained yoga teachers every day to schools, at least once a week we can send them to particular areas in cities where students from a number of schools can congregate. We can also collaborate with Rama Krishna Mission and other institutes who can send their yoga personnel for teaching students," he said.

Suggesting another alternative, Srivasuki added, "Schools can recruit professional psychological counsellors who can help students cope with educational and other teenage issues. But most schools don't even have a trained counsellor. We can conduct three-month yoga courses to impart training to these counsellors who can go back and give holistic training and counselling to school students."

Meanwhile, C L Srinivas, principal of Vignan Global Gen School at Vizag, which is one of the very few schools to have yoga classes for students, said, "We already have two yoga teachers to teach kids from the age of seven. Though no marks are allotted for it, it's a 45-minutes class for all our students where attendance is compulsory and the outcome has been really good. Students can cope with pressure better and don't fall ill often. Yoga and meditation class should be made compulsory in all schools across the state," he said.

Psychologists and doctors, who say they are witnessing a steady rise in cases of children and teenagers suffering from various physical and psychological ailments agree with the move too.

Psychologist and head of the department of psychology at Andhra University Prof V Hari Lakshmi, said to address behavioural issues, make students more focussed in their studies and boost their confidence, social skills training and meditation classes will be useful.