How much did the Government actually spend on the Yoga day?

The International Yoga Day, celebrated on the 21^st of June caught everybody’s attention. The highlight was of course the Mass Yoga Demonstration wherein more than 35000 people participated. Since then, social media has been agog with varied estimates of the amount spent on this celebration. After some research & filing RTI applications, it is now clear that a total of 32.75 crore rupees was spent on the celebration.

The Central Government ensured that the entire world took notice of the ‘International Yoga Day’ on 21^st June. The mass Yoga Demonstration at Rajpath with more than 35000 participants did catch the eye of the local & global media. Since then, social media has been agog with all kinds of numbers about the amount spent by government on the extravaganza. Factly dug into the details to find that a total of 32.75 crore rupees was spent by the Government for this celebration.

International Yoga Day & Events

The first International Day of Yoga was celebrated all over the Country and abroad on 21^st June, 2015.  The following events were organized as a part of these celebrations

• The main event was organized by the Ministry of Ayurveda,Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha And Homoeopathy (AYUSH) at Rajpath, New Delhi. A mass Yoga demonstration was held wherein 35,985 participants performed Yoga.
• A two days International Conference on Yoga for Holistic Health was also organized on 21st & 22nd June, 2015 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
• All the States/UTs were advised to hold mass yoga  demonstration at State, District, Block and Panchayat  levels  for celebrating International Day of Yoga on a grand scale involving  all Schools/Colleges/Universities, General Public, Yoga Institutions, Police  Personnel, NCC Cadets, NSS, NYKS, etc.
• The Ministry of External Affairs celebrated the International Day of Yoga in more than 190 countries by organising activities which included conferences on Yoga, Meetings of Yoga clubs, Yoga concerts, Yogathons, Yoga walks, documentary film screening on Yoga, Photo exhibition on yoga etc.

Total Expenses

According to the data available with the Government, a total of 32.75 crore rupees was spent on various activities. Expenditure on Publicity through Print & Electronic media including the government owned Doordarshan & All India Radio was 8.28 crore rupees. The Mass Yoga demonstration at Rajpath costed 7.59 crore rupees. The International Conference on Yoga costed 1.83 crore rupees. The Ministry of External Affairs spent 8 crore rupees for related activities in various Indian Missions across the world.

Apart from these, the Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN) provided assistance of up to 1 lakh rupees per district for the celebration, a total of Rs 6.7 crore. The Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) produced a film and booklets on Yoga with an expenditure of Rs 34.8 lakh.

The government has also said that no separate funds have been released to states apart from the CCRYN assistance.

Expenses for the Mass Yoga Demonstration at Rajpath

The Mass Yoga Demonstration at Rajpath led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was a much talked about event. The event saw more than 35000 participants in a Mass Yoga demonstration.

According to information provided to Factly by Ministry of AYUSH under RTI, the vendor for managing the event at Rajpath was M/s. Arch Concept Pvt. Ltd. The vendor was paid a total of Rs 3.67 crore for the arrangements. The major expenditure for the event included the following.

Yoga Mats

There was a lot of discussion about the Yoga Mats procured for the event. There were discussions whether these were procured from China or in India. While it is not clear where they were procured from, the RTI reply suggests that the vendor Arch Concept procured 36000 yoga mats. The total expenditure (including tax) for these 36000 Yoga Mats was 1.02 crore rupees.

Payment to Ernst & Young (EY)

The RTI reply suggests that payments to the tune of 1.32 crore rupees were made to EY. The reply from the ministry does not specify the kind of services provided by EY. It could be for the managing the entry passes & ticket strips.

T-Shirts by National Textile Corporation

A total of 25000 T-Shirts were procured from the government owned National Textile Corporation at a cost of 49 lakh rupees.

Payments made to Guinness World Records Limited

A total amount of 11900 Pounds (12.05 lakh rupees) was made to Guinness World Records Limited for the commercial services provided. It may be recalled that two new Guinness World Records were set on this day. A separate payment of 450 pounds was also made for ‘Fast Track’ service.

NSS Volunteers

The National Service Scheme Regional Center in Delhi provided 1000 volunteers for the event. A total of 22.5 lakh rupees were paid to NSS.

PS: It may be recalled that the Government celebrated the ‘Good Governance Day’ on 25^th December, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. To check if the government was equally enthusiastic in promoting the ‘Good Governance day’, Factly filed an application under RTI with the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP) asking details of the amount spent on promoting the ‘Good Governance Day’. The DAVP spent a paltry 2.52 lakh rupees in promoting the ‘Good Governance Day’. This is 0.3% of the 8.28 crore rupees spent in promoting the Yoga day.