Month-long events to celebrate Yogandhra

Vijayawada: As the 11th International Yoga Day (June 21, 2025) approaches, the State Health, Medical and Family Welfare department is set to launch a series of promotional activities State-wide under the banner ‘Yogandhra 2025’ on Monday, announced Special Chief Secretary MT Krishna Babu in a statement here on Sunday.

Special Chief Secretary of health department Krishna Babu, said in a statement on Sunday, that yoga demonstrations, competitions and training programmes will be held in all the districts across the State for a month, starting from May 21 to June 21. He said this programme will be organised with the aim of increasing awareness among people about yoga practice by organising special yoga demonstrations at famous tourist destinations and historical places.

Various programmes will be organised at State, district, mandal and village levels. Yoga gurus, yoga instructors, volunteers, yoga practitioners and the general public can register and participate in these programmes.

Theme-based yoga demonstrations, competitions and mass yoga practice will be held at famous tourist destinations across the State. Noteworthy locations for these yoga displays include Bugga Ramalingeswara Swamy Temple in Tadipatri, Anantapur district; Haritha Rock Garden in Orvakal, Kurnool; Gandhi Hill in Vijayawada; and Gundlakamma Reservoir in Prakasam district.

As part of this, 2,600 master trainers will be trained and 1,25,000 village and urban level trainers will be made through them. The government has set a target of providing yoga training to 70 lakh people in the state through these trainers. These yoga competitions will be held at various stages from village level to state level.

Three age groups can participate in the yoga competitions. Those from 10 to 18 years can participate in Junior category, those from 19 to 35 years in Young category, and those above 35 years in Senior category. Solo yoga will include sections like asanas, Surya Namaskaram, pranayama, and meditation. Group yoga, yoga song, painting, yoga drama and dance, quiz, poster, slogan, essay, short film, photography, and three-part competitions will also be organized. These competitions will be held from 7:30 am to 6 pm. The State-level competitions will be held from 9 am to 6 pm.

To create awareness among the people about these programmes, door-to-door campaign, a large-scale rally on May 27, and distribution of pamphlets will be organized. The government has requested representatives of various media outlets to widely publicize these programs in Telugu and English newspapers and television channels. The government appeals to all yoga gurus, yoga instructors, volunteers, yoga practitioners and the general public to actively participate in these programs and make the YogaAndhra 2025 campaign a success.

Detailed information regarding this programme calendar was released by medical and health department. For further information, interested people can contact District Collector office and local medical and health officials.