Yoga Day event in Surat sets Guinness World Record: Minister

The Yoga Day event organised in Surat city of Gujarat on Wednesday has set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering for a yoga session at one place with 1.53 lakh people joining the program, officials said.

Representatives of the Guinness World Records have confirmed that 1.53 lakh people participated in the Yoga session in Surat, they said.

The previous world record was set in 2018 in Kota city of Rajasthan when 1,00,984 people participated in a Yoga Day session in one place.

"The Yoga Day event in Surat has set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people for a yoga session in one place. More than one lakh people took part in the event and broke the previous record," said Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel joined the state-level 'International Day of Yoga celebration in Dumas area of Surat.

"While the state government had set a target of 1.25 lakh people for the Yoga session in Surat, officials of the Guinness World Records have confirmed that more than 1.50 lakh people gathered at the venue," said Shalini Agarwal, Commissioner, Surat Municipal Corporation.

After this event, representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records handed over a certificate to chief minister Patel declaring that a new world record has been created for the largest gathering of people for a yoga session at one place, said Surat district Collector, Aayush Oak.

"All the participants who had registered themselves were given a wristband with a QR Code which was scanned at the time of entry.

"Using that data, representatives of the Guinness World Records have confirmed that 1.53 lakh people gathered here for the Yoga session, beating the previous record set in 2018 in Kota city of Rajasthan when 1,00,984 persons participated in Yoga day celebration at one place," said Oak.

According to Agarwal, nearly 2.20 lakh people registered themselves through an online link created for this purpose.

"The QR code data confirmed that 1.53 lakh people took part in the Yoga Day event in the presence of the chief minister. These participants were accommodated on two stretches of roads having a combined length of 10.5 km. We had created 135 blocks on these roads and accommodated nearly 1,000 people in each block with an LED screen and an instructor," said the civic chief.

Across Gujarat, 1.25 crore people took part in the Yoga Day celebration at 72,000 venues, the chief minister said in his address in Surat.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has popularised yoga across the world.

"We witnessed how Yoga and pranayam helped people during the coronavirus pandemic," the chief minister said, adding that a world record has been created in Surat with the participation of more than one lakh people.

On the occasion, the chief minister announced that the state government will open 21 'Yog Studios' in the near future to popularise yoga.

"The State Yog Board has so far trained 5,000 instructors. In the coming days, the state government is planning to start 21 Yoga studios in the state," he said.

While the state-level event to mark International Yoga Day was held in Surat in the presence of the chief minister, other ministers, MLAs, MPs and officials took part in programmes in different districts.

'As the country is celebrating 75 years of independence, the state government has selected 75 iconic places to celebrate Yoga Day. These places include the Sabarmati Riverfront (Ahmedabad), Statue of Unity (Kevadia), White Rann of Kutch and Modhera Sun Temple,' said an official release.

The Yoga Day events were also held in various villages, towns, cities, colleges, schools, health centres, police headquarters, jails, police stations and at public places such as gardens, it added.