Indore, Jun 21 (IANS): The International Yoga day in Madhya Pradesh acquired a special character on Sunday with 35 transgenders from Indore and Bhopal joining their counterparts from Pune, Nagpur and Bengaluru, participating online.

The experiment was carried out in Mumbai and Pune last year. The Corona scare kept the participants indoors this year, but the awareness was spread effectively.

Yoga is not just a fitness routine but a lifestyle and extending this way of life to transgender community, trainer Krishnakant Mishra said he had already planned to organise a special yoga training session for them this year.

On why he chose to organise the event, Mishra said, "Transgender community has been accepted and given a place in Indian society, but still they often lag behind in social and cultural participation."

He explained yoga is more than a fitness way, it is a way of life. "This way of life termed as yoga means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness." He added that struggling with body and image issues, most community members lack understanding of even themselves.

"The session lasted for about an hour and in the end, the participants prayed to God to eradicate coronavirus from the world," said Mishra.