Despite call from Asian Games, yoga yet to pick pace in Delhi

Even as news of yoga becoming a demonstration event at the 2026 Asian Games was reported earlier this month, the future of competitive yoga looks bleak in Delhi. Though several people can be seen practicing yoga for good health in parks across Delhi, the discipline will not feature at Delhi University’s central sports quota seat allotment system in the 2024 2025 academic session.

The Delhi state team also didn’t compete at the 2023 Goa National Games. “Yoga is part of extra-curricular activities at DU (Delhi University) and there is a separate department that deals with it, not sports department,” said Anil Kalkal, Director of Sports, DU.

“Delhi University sports department recognises only those sports disciplines that feature at the Olympic Games programme or the Asian Games.” For the 2024 academic session, the DU sports department has listed 26 sports disciplines for the men and 27 in women’s section (see box).

“We don’t grant sports quota seats to students [having proficiency or certificate in yoga] for undergraduate courses in DU. However, the department dealing extra-curricular activities can admit them,” Kalkal said.

Kalkal added that even NCC (National Cadet Corps) also comes only under extra-curricular activities department.

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Yoga was, in fact, excluded from the sports category of DU in 2018 and there is no ray of hope of yoga being added in the list of sports disciplines in near future, said one of the physical education teachers from DU affiliated college.

‘All India Inter University does have a yoga competition but DU doesn’t field any team. Competition in several non-Olympic disciplines is being conducted by Association of Indian Universities (AIU), but DU only fields teams in sports that feature at the Asian Games or Olympic Games,” explained the physical education teacher associated with a DU college.

“Yoga was excluded from the sports category in the 2018-2019 session,” confirmed Kalkal.

“There was a legal dispute related to yoga in 2018. It was scrapped from the sports category after that,” said an official of DU on the condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorised to speak to the media.

As per the 2024 circular of the DU sports department, each college can reserve one to four percent seats for sports quota. Each college has to decide which disciplines they want for the academic session.

“Last week we sent our request to the DU sports department about the disciplines we want under the sports quota as there is the centralised selection criteria,” one of the physical education teachers from a South Campus college said.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha had pitched for inclusion of yoga in the Asian Games programme, as reported by media. Yoga would be included as a demonstration event at the 20th Asian Games scheduled to be held between September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in 2026.

A further decision would be taken at the OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) meeting in September.

“There is a procedure to be followed for the inclusion of the event in the Asian Games programme. It is too early to comment whether yoga will be part of the Asian Games programme in 2030,” said a senior sports administrator to Patriot.

Despite the IOA President pitching for yoga’s inclusion at the Asian Games, there is no national governing body of yoga that is recognised by the Indian Olympic body.

It is learnt there are two-three national federations of yoga.

As per the IOA website, there are 33 sports under the Summer Olympics Games category, while there are four Winter Olympic Games sports disciplines — ice hockey, ice skating, luge and skiing.

Sports disciplines at Delhi University

Men

Archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, diving, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling (26).

Women

Archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, boxing, chess, cricket, diving, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, netball, shooting, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling (27).

National Games

Yogasana featured at the 2023 Goa National Games. Competitors contested for 30 medals in traditional yogasana (men and women), rhythmic yogasana (men and women pair) and artistic yogasana (men and women).

Nine states were in fray in yogasana and Maharashtra topped with five gold (total 9 medals). Haryana finished second with two gold (total 6), and Gujarat was third with one gold (total 3).

The Delhi team didn’t compete at the Goa National Games due to problems within the state unit. Jai Bhagwan, general secretary of Delhi Yoga Association affiliated to Yoga Federation of India was reluctant to speak on the activities of the Delhi body.

“I’ve been secretary of the Delhi unit for a long time but I can’t give any details of the activities at the moment due to my busy schedule,” Bhagwan told Patriot. Later he didn’t respond to calls. Yoga has, in fact, deep roots in Indian history and culture.

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The 10th edition of the International Yoga Day was held on June 21 and the theme was Yoga for self and Society. Digvijay Singh, a part-time Delhi based yoga teacher has no idea about the competitive aspect of yoga.

But yoga competitions are conducted at Delhi Education department-run schools. Singh, who did a course in yoga from Maharashtra, said his clients are health oriented and have nothing to do with competition.

“I take yoga classes in the morning. People associated in the group perform yoga asana for health benefits,” Singh added.

“There are different sets of yoga for young and old. It all depends on an individual’s interest. But the majority of the people practice yoga for health and well-being.”