Belief of Indian population on traditional yoga system during COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Today, the world is suffering with various psychological diseases due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to Arogya Setu statisticstill date, the overall death caused by COVID pandemic is approx. 5.9 lakhs with approximately 2.01 Crore affected people globally¹. In the meantime, we the Yoga therapists are also gathering knowledge about this virus. Though we are neither medical professionals nor we have much understanding about the viruses, but still we have an idea that none of the bacteria, virus or fungus can affect a person with higher immunity. On the other hands, due to the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is suffering with stress and anxiety. Therefore, in order to know the perception of common population of Gautam Buddha Nagar towards the Yogic practices, we had conducted a study during this pandemic in which total 350 participants of both genders (165 professionals and 185 students) took part and collected the data regarding their perception about Yogic Practices. Under the umbrella of evidences, it can be stated that younger people have more belief and interest in Yogic Practices than elderly people. The result has a significant difference at 0.05 level of confidence. Thus, the hypothesis is accepted that Yoga has a potential to buffer the overall management of health and immunity.