How India Regulates Yoga: What Africa Needs to Know

For many Africans, yoga is understood primarily as a form of physical exercise. We see the stretching, postures, breathing exercises and meditation and naturally associate yoga with fitness, relaxation and stress management.

My exposure to the Indian system, however, has strengthened my appreciation that yoga occupies a much broader space. In India, yoga is not merely an exercise class. It is connected with lifeclass, preventive health, education, research and, in some circumstances, therapeutic practice.

This raises an important question for Africa: if yoga is increasingly used for health purposes, how should the people who practise and teach it be regulated? The Indian experience provides important lessons.

Yoga is recognized in India - but not exactly like Ayurveda

One of the first things Africans need to understand is that being recognized by government does not necessarily mean that every traditional health system is regulated in the same manner.

India has a dedicated Ministry of AYUSH. AYUSH represents Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy. Yet these systems do not all have identical legal status.

Ayurveda, for example, operates within a statutory medical education and professional regulatory framework under India's National Commission for Indian System of Medicine. Ayurvedic medical practitioners therefore have defined educational and professional pathways. Yoga is different.

India has strongly institutionalized, standardized and promoted yoga, but yoga practitioners do not simply become licensed medical doctors because they have obtained a yoga qualification. This distinction is critical.

India has a Yoga Certification Board

One of the mechanisms India has adopted is the Yoga Certification Board under the Ministry of AYUSH. The Board was established to promote professional standardization and certification in yoga. It recognizes that yoga professionals can possess different levels of knowledge and competency.

This makes considerable sense. Someone who has undergone basic training to teach yoga exercises to healthy people cannot automatically be considered professionally equivalent to someone who has undergone advanced training in therapeutic applications of yoga.

India has therefore moved toward competency-based certification. This provides an important lesson for Africa: we should stop assuming that everyone practising within a traditional or complementary health discipline must possess exactly the same scope of practice.

Yoga education can be serious academic training

Another misconception is that yoga training necessarily consists of a few weeks of learning postures. India has formal educational pathways in yoga, including certificates, diplomas, undergraduate and postgraduate education and programmes connected with yoga therapy.

A qualification demonstrates that someone has completed an educational programme. A professional certification demonstrates that specified competencies have been assessed. A professional registration or licence, however, gives someone a particular legal status under the applicable law. These terms should not be used interchangeably.

A person may therefore possess an advanced yoga qualification without automatically possessing the legal authority of a physician.

When does yoga become healthcare?

This is perhaps the most interesting question. Suppose I wake up in the morning and practise yoga for 30 minutes for flexibility, breathing, relaxation and general well-being. That is essentially a lifeclass activity.

Suppose an instructor teaches 20 healthy people yoga exercises at a community centre. That remains primarily wellness practice.

But consider another scenario. A person has hypertension. A practitioner takes information about the person's condition and designs a particular yoga programme intended to assist in managing that hypertension. The situation has changed. The practitioner is no longer simply teaching exercise. There is now a therapeutic intention.

The practitioner needs to understand the person's health condition, limitations, possible contraindications and when the person should be referred to a physician or another healthcare professional. This is where yoga begins to cross from lifeclass practice into healthcare.

Yoga therapy is therefore different

Africa should pay particular attention to the emerging field of yoga therapy. A yoga therapist may use appropriately selected postures, breathing exercises, relaxation and meditation techniques as adjunctive interventions for people with particular health problems.

But there must be boundaries. A yoga therapist should not automatically assume that the title permits the practitioner to prescribe pharmaceutical medicines, perform surgery, independently manage every disease or present themselves as a medical doctor.

Competency in yoga therapy is not the same thing as possessing a general medical licence. That distinction protects both the practitioner and the patient.

WHO is also paying attention

This is no longer simply an Indian discussion. In 2025, the World Health Organization published its Training in Yoga technical report addressing competency-based training for yoga.

WHO noted variations in yoga training internationally and the absence of a uniform global regulatory process. This development is significant because it places increasing international attention on competency, quality and safety in yoga training.

For African countries contemplating the development of yoga and other traditional, complementary and integrative medicine professions, this provides an important international reference.

Africa should not regulate every yoga practitioner like a doctor

We should also be careful not to overregulate yoga. A person practising yoga at home does not require a professional licence. Likewise, someone teaching basic yoga for flexibility, relaxation and general wellness should not necessarily be subjected to the same regulatory requirements as a healthcare practitioner.

I propose that Africa consider a graduated system:

Source: Constructed by the Author (2026).

This model avoids two extremes. We should neither turn every yoga instructor into a medical practitioner nor allow everyone who learns a few yoga techniques to begin treating patients.

What should a yoga therapist be allowed to do?

African regulators will eventually have to confront this question. The answer should depend upon training, competency, evidence and risk.

A properly trained yoga therapist could potentially provide condition-appropriate yoga programmes within a clearly defined scope. But yoga certification by itself should not provide authority to perform surgery, prescribe prescription medicines, administer anaesthesia or claim the professional status of a physician.

There must also be a duty to refer. If a patient develops unexplained chest pain during a yoga session, for example, the practitioner should understand that the matter has moved beyond yoga practice and requires appropriate medical evaluation. Knowing when not to treat is itself an important professional competency.

Africa must also regulate health claims

Another emerging problem is advertising. Statements such as 'Yoga cures cancer', 'Yoga permanently reverses diabetes' or 'Stop your blood-pressure medication and practise yoga' should not be accepted merely because yoga is considered natural.

Traditional and complementary medicine deserves the same intellectual discipline we expect elsewhere in healthcare. Where scientific evidence supports benefit, practitioners should say so. Where the evidence demonstrates only a possible complementary benefit, that limitation should also be communicated. Where evidence is insufficient, practitioners should not manufacture certainty.

What India can teach Africa

The greatest lesson from India is not that Africa should copy India. India has developed its systems within its own history, laws, institutions and culture. The lesson is institution building.

India has created governmental structures. It has developed educational pathways. It has introduced professional certification. It has established research institutions. It has developed competency standards. It has created opportunities for traditional knowledge to interact with contemporary healthcare and scientific research.

That is the lesson Africa needs. Our traditional and complementary medicine sector will not become stronger merely by demanding recognition. Recognition must be accompanied by standards. Standards must be accompanied by education. Education must produce measurable competencies. Competencies must determine scope of practice. And scope of practice must be accompanied by professional accountability.

Yoga also offers Africa a bigger lesson

The discussion goes beyond yoga. Africa possesses enormous traditions of movement, nutrition, fasting, massage, herbal medicine, spirituality, community healing and preventive health. Many remain poorly researched, poorly documented and inadequately institutionalized.

India demonstrates what can happen when traditional knowledge moves from informal practice toward education, research, standardization and national policy.

Africa should therefore study India's yoga development not simply because we want Africans to practise yoga. We should study it because it asks a much bigger question: How can traditional knowledge be transformed into safe, evidence-informed, professionally accountable and culturally relevant healthcare and lifeclass systems?

That is ultimately the conversation Africa needs to have.

About the Author

Prof. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu is a Ghanaian naturopathic academic, researcher and lawyer whose work focuses on naturopathic medicine, traditional and complementary medicine regulation, health law, policy and professional education. He is President of Nyarkotey College of Holistic Medicine and Founding President of the African Naturopathic Federation.

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