Yoga as stressbuster for cops

One week Yoga camp was concluded today in the Police Lines Amritsar, where more than 300 police officers of various ranks right from Constable to SSP participated. Amritsar Police in collaboration with Amritsar Chapter of Patanjali Yog Vidyapeeth Hardwar(founded by Swami Ramdev) has organized this camp for the benefit of the police officers.

The idea behind this camp is mental and physical development of the officers as well as to change their mindset to deal with the common people. It is going to change the work culture of the police towards commoners as well as to improve police public relations.

Besides this, 20 police officers have been selected for advanced Yoga Course so that they can be trained as Yoga Teachers. Amritsar Police is going to include yoga in the daily routine of the police officers. Every morning, the police stations and other units will have yoga classes in future.

District Coordinator of Patanjali Yog Vidyapeeth Subhash Suman and Awan Parashar along with other yoga teachers were prominent to make this camp successful. SP Kewal Kumar, Kaustubh Sharma, DSP Shailender Singh, Lakhbir Singh, Manjit Singh and SHOs of various Police Stations alongwith their subordinates participated in the camp. Vijay Pratap Singh, SSP of Amritsar is also well versed in yoga having Diploma in this discipline.

News: The Times of India

Yoga as stressbuster for cops

21 Aug 2007, 0226 hrs IST,Yudhvir Rana,TNN

AMRITSAR: Police here have taken the yoga route to overcome stress, fatigue and obesity, with an aim to increase their efficiency in bringing down the crime graph and for better police-public relations. About 500 policemen, of all ranks, participate in the yoga workshop held every Monday at police lines.

“By practising yoga, we have observed 30% improvement in physical and mental fitness of jawans and it is an encouraging figure,” said Surjit Singh, SP, headquarter, on Monday. Surjit is assigned to implement yogic fitness programme, the brainchild of SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh.

He said law enforcement was a tough job. Long working hours and work overload cause fatigue and stress that gets reflected in the behaviour of jawans, Surjit said.

He added that with yoga they have been successful in de-stressing the jawans as well as the officers. Symptoms of stress and fatigue include behavioural change, drowsiness during duty, inability to stand upright, irritation and misbehaviour, he said.

The SP said about 20% policemen were obese and yoga along with routine exercises and parade have helped them to reduce weight and be physically fit.
He said district police had especially sent head constable Baldev Singh to Patanjali Yog Peeth, Haridwar, for yoga training. Now, he imparts yoga training to policemen, so that they could also practice it at home with their families.

He said apart from normal stresses, the long working hours affects policemen and for this yoga has proved to be the best cure.

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandigarh/Yoga_as_stressbuster_for_cops/articleshow/2296484.cms)