Indian Soldiers Use Yoga to Control Stress-Related Behaviors

July 4, 2007

Indian Soldiers Use Yoga to Control Stress-Related Behaviors SRINAGAR, KASHMIR, August 8, 2006: In an effort to reduce the amount of stress-related behaviors experienced by soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Kashmir, the forces have turned to the ancient tradition of yoga. The news release explains, "Embraced by fashionable Westerners as a way to exercise, yoga has now become a necessary component of India's 17-year-long counterinsurgency effort in the disputed state of Kashmir. While the recent suicides and fratricides among Indian troops in the Army and other forces remain statistically small, the sudden string of such incidents prompted officials to act. India's main counter-insurgency police force in Kashmir has begun requiring its paramilitary troops to de-stress as a way to cope with the tensions of a conflict that

shows no sign of ending. Soldiers in butterfly poses may not be what the ancient yogis had in mind but it's already delivering results."Om Prakesh, a soldier in CRPF who has suffered from depression, says, "Before yoga, there was a chance I could have died. But now, with yoga, it's much better. It is very difficult to work in such a situation, but now I find it is very easy. My mind is at peace."Dilip Singh, spokesman for the CRPF in Srinagar, says, "After performing operations, our soldiers are under stress, and to get out of that and achieve health, they do yoga. Yoga is adopted to keep the mind in control, so that they remain controlled in their actions."The No. 1 killer is always stress, if you don't have stress then you don't have problems. People will be under stress, that is part of our jobs. We can't control the rush of events. But science shows that most ailments are psychosomatic, and whatever the brain transmits, the body will receive.

Yoga helps to control this and bring some peace to body and mind," adds Sanjay Singh, second in command of the 1st Battalion, at the CRPF's ultrasensitive Hariniwas complex in Srinagar.Dr. Bolvin adds, "It is clear government intervention will be required to elicit effective protection for the majority of the sites in the area if these are not to be erased completely over the course of future years."

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