India to launch yoga visa on International Day of Yoga

The Indian government is planning to introduce a ‘yoga visa’ with the intent of making India the hub of this physical and spiritual practice. It is likely to be introduced on June 21, which is incidentally the third International Day of Yoga. Realising that yoga has caught the attention of foreigners, the Indian government has decided to issue special student visas to facilitate them to learn yoga in the land where it was born. Although referred to officially as the Yoga visa, it is actually a student visa. Foreign nationals carrying yoga visas would be exempted from visiting and reporting themselves at the FRO (Foreigners’ Registration Office) at the police headquarters of the city they are in. In the year 2014, the United Nations declared June 21as the International Day of Yoga following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s enterprise to raise the standing of yoga when he addressed the UN General Assembly in September 2014. Asking world leaders to follow an international Yoga Day, he said that this discipline personified mind and body’s unity; harmony between man and nature; and more. This request made the UN pass a resolution which designated June 21 as International Day of Yoga, on December 11, 2014.