Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said Saturday the government has decided to honour media houses for their contribution towards promoting healthy living through yoga.
He said 33 awards will be given — 11 each for newspaperorganisations, TV and radio channels. A six-member jury will consider theentries in all 23 official languages.
Media campaigns on yoga from June 10 to June 25 will beconsidered for International Yoga Day Awards.
“One of India’s gifts to the world is yoga. When PrimeMinister NarendraModi proposed to celebrate June 21 as International Day ofYoga (IDY), the United Nations and all countries responded positively,” hesaid.
“Every year, more than 200 countries celebrate IDY.This year also, I am sure, millions of people will participate in it.
“We have observed that many media houses are also doingtheir bit to propagate the message of healthy life and healthy living throughyoga… They are carrying out their own campaigns. We have decided to recognisethe services and (yoga) campaigns of the media,” the minister said.
This year, the government has shortlisted Delhi, Shimla,Mysore, Ahmedabad and Ranchi to hold national programmes to mark theInternational Yoga Day.
Last year, the main IDY event was held at the ground ofForest Research Institute, Dehradun, in which Prime Minister NarendraModiparticipated.
The first IDY event was organised at Rajpath in New Delhi in2015, in which representatives of 191 countries took part.In 2016, the main function was held inChandigarh and in 2017, it was held in Lucknow.