CCRYN holds yoga session for nursing students at Safdarjung Hospital

The Ministry of Ayush is using International Day of Yoga 2026 to push yoga deeper into India’s health system, and Safdarjung Hospital became one of the campaign’s clearest test cases as CCRYN led a Common Yoga Protocol session for 50 nursing students on May 22.

The session was not just another wellness stop. It was part of awareness activities ahead of IDY 2026, with the ministry framing yoga as a tool for holistic health and stress reduction. By placing the program inside a government hospital and directing it at nursing students, officials signaled that yoga promotion is moving beyond public symbolism and into institutions where future health workers are trained.

Safdarjung Hospital gives that strategy a strong setting. Founded in 1942 and taken over by the Government of India in 1954, the New Delhi hospital is a tertiary, multi-disciplinary healthcare institution with 1,531 authorized beds. It also serves as a teaching centre for postgraduate students and interns, which makes it a natural site for the Ministry of Ayush to test how yoga can be folded into everyday medical training rather than left on the margins of it.

The College of Nursing at VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital adds another layer to that choice. Upgraded in 2008, the college has an annual intake of 100 students and a current strength of 250. That steady pipeline matters to CCRYN and the Ministry of Ayush because nursing students are among the healthcare workers most likely to carry yoga awareness into wards, outpatient settings and patient counseling.

The May 22 session also sat inside a larger IDY 2026 build-up that began with the ministry’s 100-day countdown on March 13, 2026. The ministry said 100 organizations would promote yoga in 100 places during the countdown and proposed commemorations at 100 iconic locations across India, a scale that shows how aggressively official yoga promotion is being organized this year.

That campaign has already included Yoga Mahotsav-2026 in Lonar on April 7, where nearly 5,000 participants performed the Common Yoga Protocol along with Yogasana, Pranayama and Dhyana as the 75-day countdown formally began. The ministry has also highlighted Yoga 365, Yoga for Air Travel and 10 Yoga Protocols for Non-Communicable Diseases, while a toll-free helpline, 1800-315-7008, offers 14 days of free guided yoga practice.

At Safdarjung Hospital, the message was practical and immediate: if yoga is going to be institutionalized in healthcare, the next generation of nurses is where that shift has to start.