NEW DELHI, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- In what could be claimed an innovative approach to rehabilitation, an Indian prison is offering its inmates commutation of sentences for completing a three-month yoga course.
According to the prison authorities, more than 400 inmates have enrolled themselves for the yoga course introduced by the Gwalior Jail in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the successful completion of which will see their prison terms reduced by 36 days, and some 68 are set for early release.
"We are running yoga classes in many jails. The basic objective to practice yoga in jails is to help the inmates to master the art, bust the stress, anger management and to keep them fit," Sanjay Mani, Inspector-General of Prisons in Madhya Pradesh, told the media in state capital Bhopal.
"We offer remission of sentence to prisoners who admit themselves for educational courses and yoga will be covered in the remission," he added.
Yoga exponents have welcomed the move.
"Yoga helps to control the mind, create self-awareness and in the process helps you to achieve mental and emotional well being in addition to physical fitness. It encompasses within its purview factors that contribute to good health and vitality," said Romen Roy Chowdhury, a foremost recession yoga exponent who teaches in Delhi and Mumbai.
"Yoga inculcates discipline in temperament, soothes the turbulent mind through meditation, and helps you to focus and channelise our lives," he added.
In fact, Gwalior Jail is not the only one which has introduced the yoga course. The Tihar Jail in the national capital last year introduced yoga to cut stress levels inside prison.
Tihar authorities have made an hour-long yoga session in the open gardens mandatory for inmates and the policemen, under the supervision of a trainer.
"The yoga session will be held between 07:00 a.m. and 08:00 a.m. . The inmates are more excited than we are. Earlier, they were holding yoga sessions on their own. After we saw their enthusiasm, we decided to make more formal arrangements," Tihar Jail official Sunil Gupta had said.
