Train companies in India are now utilising yoga as a way of making their staff more efficient, relaxed and productive. Specifically, Indian Railways. The Mumbai suburban railway is one of the busiest in the entire world, transporting over 7 million passengers every single day. Naturally, this puts the drivers – known as ‘motormen’ under huge pressure. Part of the stress of working on Indian railways is not just in keeping the trains on time, but in preventing accidents. Every single year, thousands of people die on Mumbai’s railway tracks. Mumbai trains are regularly carrying 2.5 more passengers than initially intended.

This creates enormous tension for the motormen running the trains, who are also subject to dealing with frequent customer complaints, rudeness and track failures.

So, with all of that, why yoga? Well, primarily, there are the mental benefits of yoga. Yoga is often seen as a fantastic way to de-stress, along with being a very popular form of exercise. The mental relief that exercises like yoga bring can make a huge difference to companies whose employees are overworked or in positions where concentration is a top priority, especially when it involves safety. Yoga has a major benefit on the day-to-day lives of its participants, helping them to focus, and reducing tension from an extremely difficult role.

Physically, yoga also makes a big difference. It’s well known that keeping physically fit can have a huge impact on your mental health. Yoga helps with elements such as posture, losing weight and even blood circulation, which in turn keeps the mind sharp – a quality which is vital for train drivers.

There are over 1174 drivers on the Mumbai suburban railway line. By regular standards, this is an astronomical figure for a single line, meaning that Indian Railways are hard pressed to provide a good working environment and level of care for all of their drivers. By utilising yoga, the company appears to have found an activity which is not limited to only certain drivers, and can be practiced by every employee.