Aiming to improve quality standards and also to have uniform quality in services among the yoga and other medical institutions in the state, a group of yoga institutes and medical institutions in Maharashtra, with the assistance from the state health ministry, have formed a committee to regulate yoga institutes in the state.

This committee has already prepared the first draft of regulations, which will soon be presented to the state government for its consideration. The pre-committee's meeting with government officials to present the first draft was scheduled on February 13, but it was postponed due to some reasons.

The first meeting of the pre-committee was held on June 11, 2009 which was chaired by Dr K R Kohli, director of Ayurdeva, Maharashtra. Apart from Dr K R Kohli, members from prominent institutes like yoga institute, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute; Santacruz Yoga Institute; Yoga Vidya Dham, Nashik; Yoga Vidya Niketan, Vashi; Ghantali Mitra Mandal, Thane; Ramamani Iyengar Yoga Institute, Pune; National Institute of Naturopathy; Maharashtra Medical Practitioner Association; and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences are the members of the pre-committee.

Coordinator of Yoga from Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute, Subodh Tiwari said, “We are discussing the formation of committee to give support to have regulatory body for yoga institutes. This will help to control and prevent the setting up of institutes by people who have not learnt the full course of yoga.”

Once the committee is formed and regulation is in place, it will be mandatory for every yoga institute to register its name with the regulatory body. The yoga institutes will get recognition only after a thorough inspection of the institute by the regulatory body. The focus of the inspection will be on the availability of qualified trainers to run the institute.