Bengaluru: The IDL Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, on Saturday organised a state level yoga competition for blind and visually challenged people at NGO Hall, Cubbon Park in Bengaluru. Shwaasa yoga guru Vachana Ananda Swami was the chief guest at the inaugural function.Speaking to media persons, Dr P K Paul, founder of IDL Foundation, said it was the first-of- its-kind yoga camp for blind and visually challenged people in Karnataka. “Around 150 visually challenged people participated in the yoga competition. The objective of this competition is to promote yoga among visually challenged people,’’ Dr Paul said.

There were four categories in the competition for students. The first category was for 1st standard to 4th standard students, the second category was for 5th standard to 7th standard students, the third category was for 8th standard to 10th standard students and the fourth category was for PUC and degree students. “All the participants were taught breathing exercise. We have decided to give a cash award of Rs 1,500 for the winner, Rs 1,000 for the runner-up and consolation prizes for others. We have also decided to give a special bag for all the participants,’’ he said.

Expressing happiness over having an opportunity to participate in yoga competition, Mahadeva P H, a student of Sri BGS School for Blind, Ramanagara, said he attended the yoga competition along with 15 students from BGS School for Blind. “I have been practicing yoga from 4 am to 5 am daily at the BGS School,’’ Mahadeva said.

Expressing similar opinion, Karthik P of Chikballapur said that he was pursuing degree at the Government First Grade College, Vijayanagar in Bengaluru. “I am very happy to participate in the yoga competition,’’ he said.