Jharkhand Police seems to be struggling hard to work on the guidelines issued by Union Ministry of Home Affairs for making police personnel physically fit and mentally tough. The Ministry’s instructions to State police forces across the country to rope in trained yoga instructors to thwart stress related disorders and occupation related health problems among the police personnel, is yet to be implemented.
“There is no headway in this regard so far.....but yoga camps are being organised twice in police lines and were attended by two batches of 100 policemen each. As far as appointment of yoga teachers are concerned, nothing has been done so far in this regard,” said a Sergeant Major requesting anonymity.
Senior officials in the police department, however, were of the view that initiative has already been taken after the grants were received from the Centre and appointments of yoga instructors will be done very soon across the State.
“The grants which had been provided by the centre to the state police for the purpose has been distributed among various police units and have also been directed to appoint Yoga instructors on contract basis,” said former IG (Training) Prashant Singh. He however, refused to divulge any further details as he has been transferred from the post.
“I will not be able to tell the current status as I am not the IG (Training) any more. let the new officer join, who will be in a position to give actual status in this regard,” said Singh. According to Singh, since it was a grant based scheme, it would be continued till the grant was made available to the State police.
Though, the initiative was taken by the Central Government, the proposal had been lauded by the police officials who believed that it will bring in positive changes in the day to day behavior of the police personnel.
Singh said a proposal has been received to depute two yoga teachers in each of the districts on part time or full time basis, funding for which is being done by the centre. A remuneration of Rs 13, 500 to the part time instructors, while Rs 27, 000 will be paid to the full time yoga instructors.
Yoga instructors will be engaged only through outsourcing and no right of claim will be entertained for their regularisation. The training schedule for the yoga classes— ‘Central Sector Scheme of Yoga Training for Police Personnel’ has been formulated by the Ministry of Ayush to promote healthy lifestyle and energy to improve their skills through yogic practices.
“The purpose of the programme”, according to a Sergeant Major, “is to make police personnel get rid of the mental stress received during their duty hour. “Yoga definitely will drag them out of it, giving them mental peace of which a policeman is generally devoid of,” he said.
Moreover, police personnel will also be able to keep control on their anger through yoga. Since practice of yoga enables a person to be patient and making them fresh for long hours, it will also help policemen to shed their irate image who are ready to get into disputes all the time.
It is a common perception that the Policemen have to undergo through several stress related disorders besides the occupation related health problems, yoga being the best stress buster, there needs to impart proper and good yoga training to the police personnel so that they could be convinced to adopt the system of yoga and make it as a part of their lifestyle.