Yoga for grim-faced securitymen at Taj

Vijay Upadhyay
Agra. For tourists arriving at the Taj Mahal, the gun-toting, grim-faced security personnel often are a turn-off. But these security personnel may soon be seen sporting a pleasant smile and greeting the tourists, courtesy Yoga classes that Taj security personnel will attend.

The rising number of tourists at the Taj Mahal may be a matter of pride for those associated with the tourist trade, but this rise in tourist traffic is also a matter of concern for security agencies engaged in safeguarding the monument.

With the Taj Mahal being frequented by tens of thousands of tourists every day, the effect of work-related stress has become all too evident on the CISF personnel deployed at the Taj Mahal. The otherwise friendly CISF personnel's behaviour, sometimes leaves much to be desired - a matter that has lately been of considerable concern among the tourism officials in Agra.

To combat this and to make CISF staff more active and friendly towards Taj tourists during the rush hours, the local CISF unit posted at the monument has decided to attend a Yoga guru's camp, where they would learn meditation, stress management and how to increase their efficiency.

CISF Deputy Commandant V Khamo Singh said the tourist traffic at the Taj Mahal has more than doubled in the past two years and the number of foreign tourists alone has crossed 6 lakh in the year 2005. On an average, 10,000 tourists visit the monument each day and this number has quadrupled during the peak months of December and January.

This rush of tourists, for which the CISF personnel were not accustomed after having spent much of their career guarding installations with limited public access, gave rise to many stress-related problems among the jawans and resulted in the development of unpleasant situations at the gates of the monument between the security personnel and the tourists which reflected poorly on the image of the CISF as a well-disciplined and orderly force.

Taking preventive steps to counter the build-up of such situations at the monument, she said, it had been decided to impart Yoga training to the CISF personnel posted at the Taj Mahal.

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