Telangana introduces yoga for young girls

The Telangana state government has introduced "healthy lifestyle programme" for the adolescent girls who will be given yoga and physical fitness training. The innovative programme is targeted towards unmarried adolescent girls, particularly of SC and ST communities, between age group of 13 years and 21 years.

The programme also includes school and college dropouts. The identified group would be provided training in yoga, walking, jogging and fitness activities like sports and games. In the training, they would be provided running shoes, T-shirts and track pants.

Since yoga has been playing a vital role in enabling a healthy lifestyle, the government has decided to create awareness about yoga in rural areas, said a senior official. Highly-nutritious food plans would be designed in consultation with the Hyderabad-based National Institute of



Nutrition and UNICEF to promote right food habits among the adolescent girls.

The importance of daily intake of variety of items like millets, fruits, vegetables and eggs would be taught during the training. The objective of introduction of such items is to ensure that adolescent girls are conscious of their food habits and make necessary changes in their diet and continue to take balanced diet even after completion of training.

The new lifestyle programme would help to build the capacity of the adolescent girls on matters relating to safety and security, health, nutrition, hygiene and reproductive health, said Secretary to Women Development and Child Welfare M Jagadeeshwar. Besides, the training would create awareness on prevention of child marriages, anti-trafficking and awareness on legal and protective mechanisms.