COIMBATORE: Around 5,000 prisoners attended yoga classes conducted by Isha Foundation jointly with the prison department. In order to improve physical and mental well-being of prison inmates, the yoga classes were conducted in all central, district jails, and sub-jails including Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchy, Vellore, and Cuddalore districts over the last three months.

Trained yoga teachers taught inmates various forms of yoga practices to get rid of stress. The inmates felt glad over the opportunity and claimed that they wouldn’t have ended up in prison if they had attended yoga sessions. “This class will help us not to engage in any criminal activities again after we go out,” the prisoners said. Isha Foundation has been conducting prison programmes across Tamil Nadu. So far, around 40,000 inmates have benefited out of these programmes.