The status of the welfare of persons with mental disability in India, concerning the provision of education and employment opportunities for persons with mental retardation received its formal recognition after the Persons with Disabilities Act (PWD), 1995 came into existence, which was updated by the Rights of PWD Act, 2016 (RPWD Act, 2016) [1].

This has introduced the term “intellectual disability” in the place of “mental retardation.” The principles of the enactment are: respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one's own choices, and independence of persons. These principles reflect a new perspective of thinking about disability as a human rights issue than social welfare.

Mental retardation is a developmental disorder of considerable limitations in a person’s intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and adaptive behaviors (a range of everyday self-care, socializing and communication skills). It is widely referred to as “intellectual disability (ID)” and “intellectual developmental disorders (IDDs).” India being a signatory to the World Health Organization (WHO), the term “mental retardation” is still used in clinical practice, and both the terms, intellectual disability and mental retardation, are widely in use [2].

ID is generally connected with various medical comorbidities at various degrees of both neurological and nonneurological. Some comorbidities arise as a consequence of ID. The ICD-10 document (WHO) [3] provides the following levels of IQ as a guide, not to be applied rigidly, because of cross-cultural validity and these categories are arbitrary divisions of Mental Retardation:

Normal IQ Score is >90. IQs between 80 and 120, with an IQ of 100 is considered average. To be diagnosed as having mental retardation, a person’s IQ is to be below 70-75, i.e. significantly below average. Approximately 85% of the mentally retarded population is in the mildly retarded category.

These studies suggest that considerable plasticity and scope for improvement in motor performance, cognitive abilities, is still present in Mentally challenged children. A study on the effect of yoga on epilepsy suggested that Yoga would be an attractive therapeutic option for epilepsy, may induce relaxation and stress reduction, and influence the electroencephalogram and the autonomic nervous system, thereby controlling seizures. [16] A study using the Transcendental Meditation technique reported improvements in a 26year old female patient on her verbal and social behavior and physiological functioning over three years while practising the technique.[17] Another study observed that the children who have difficulty in concentration, seem to be constantly in motion. [18] Some researchers have suggested that excess stress can be lowered in children through physical exercise which may, in turn, improve their performance on intellectual activity. However, no reliable conclusions can be drawn regarding the efficacy of yoga as a treatment for uncontrolled epilepsy. [19] Yoga therapy is mainly about using certain body postures to influence the body and mind to normalize emotional and mental disturbances resulting in more even thoughts and feelings enabling relief from certain diseases and disorders. There is a general lack of research studies exploring the effect of yoga on cognitive development in mentally retarded children. With this in view, the investigators have undertaken this study using Yoga Prana Vidya (YPV) intervention to find its effects on social behaviour, cognitive development, and IQ of mentally retarded children.

Yoga Prana Vidya (YPV) System: To do Yoga postures, known as yoga asanas, a person’s body has to be in fit condition and flexible. In contrast to therapies using Yoga postures, a relatively easier and safer way is to work on the energy body which encapsulates the physical body. Figure 1 below shows a picture of the energy body of a normally healthy person alongside a sick person’s energy body, for comparison.

1. SuperBrain Asana, 2.Physical exercise, 3. Breathing exercise, 4.Planetary peace Meditation, 5.Forgiveness sadhana, and 6. YPV healing.

Initially the sample children practised under the guidance of a trained YPV practitioner, and later on, practised under the guidance of the school teacher by using the YPV sadhana app on mobile downloaded from Google play store. Throughout the study, Planetary peace meditation was done once a week under the guidance of a trained YPV practitioner. Distant YPV Healing was done initially daily for 3 months, followed by three times a week for 9 months, and once a week for 12 months.

The subjects (participants) of the Study

Sample selection criteria: Mentally retarded (MR) Children of any age and gender in the selected school who are willing to participate in the study are considered for inclusion. Accordingly, MR children were recruited for this pilot study from the Government school of mentally challenged children in a city in India after obtaining informed consent from the Dean of the School. Exclusion criteria consisted of a profound category of MR children, MR children with other severe illnesses, MR children not willing to participate in the study. An exception was made to include a 30 years old inmate of this school in this pilot study group.

Sample Size: 28 children were meeting the criteria, but 7 were not in a condition to follow the YPV instructions, and not taken for the study. The final sample selected was 21. Of these 21 inmates selected, there were 16 males and 5 females, and most of them were in the age range of 12-18 years except for 2 subjects, one of which was 8 years and the other was 30 years.

Data Collection

Quantitative data collection tool: The participant sample was subjected to examination by a clinical

In the matter of IQ as assessed by the clinical psychologist, it is observed from Table 1and Figure 2 that the increase in IQ was present, however not found statistically significant.

Fig 2:Graphical representation of IQ year wise

From Table 2 it is observed that at the end of the 2^nd year of YPV intervention, the number of “moderately” retarded children decreased from 13 to 2, and 6 of them improved to the “mild” category. However 5 of those categorised earlier as mild moved up to the “severe” category increasing the number from 2 to 7. The principal investigator and the clinical psychologist investigated these 7 cases in which there appeared a deterioration of the response or there was no response. It was found that 3 were non-responsive, and 2 were very aggressive and on sedative medication, and did not attend the practice classes.

The other 2 children were epileptic, and because of frequent epileptic attacks their mental activity was negatively influenced. However, on the other hand, as they went on practising in the intervention there was a reduction in the frequency and duration of the epileptic attacks. But due to damage to the brain by epilepsy there was not much improvement in their learning abilities, but some improvements in concentration, understanding and memor y were observed.

Other factors: The beta coefficient shows the increase in concentration (fig 2), concept test (Fig 3), memory test (Fig 4), understanding (Fig 5), drawing test(Fig 6), social behaviour (Fig 7), and

colour recognition (Fig 8). The ability to recognize the shape was not significant.

Fig3: Graphical representation of concentration  year wise

Fig4: Graphical representation of concept  year wise

Fig5: Graphical representation of Memory, year-wise

Fig6: Graphical representation of understanding year wise

4. Personal skills: As far as their skills of eating, dressing, cleanliness and toilet training are concerned, initially there were76.20% of children who were able to take care of themselves, has increased to 95.3% after 1 year & 100% after II nd year.

5. Behavior: Initially, all have abnormal behavior except 3 (14.28%) children were aggressive in their behavior, biting and beating each other, tearing off clothes of self and others, abusive tendencies, stealing, telling lies, breaking the utensils like glass, thali, spoon, Katori ( small bowl ), excessive shouting without any cause.

After 6 months from the start of the intervention, physical violence reduced almost to nil. After 1 year it was observed that they were doing group activity peacefully, helping each other in work, sharing food and other things amongst them, helping those who are weak and not able to do a certain activity, help each other in dressing.

Also, some of them won prizes in various vocational competition programs in the town. At the beginning of the intervention, the investigator used to take 1hr and 45 minutes to make them learn yoga and meditation, but now the investigator can finish the same in 30 to 40 minutes only.

In the present study, it has been observed that the YPV intervention has brought several noteworthy and significant changes in the qualitative and quantitative measures of the parameters in the life of mentally challenged children. There was a statistically significant improvement in the mild and moderately retarded children in their cognitive abilities viz.

understanding, concentration, concept, understanding & memory & other learning skills. Continuing the practice of the YPV techniques helps to maintain, sustain and make further progress of their learning skills and social behavior, though not much significant change in the IQ as observed.

The gross motor skill was the same pre and post-intervention but fine motor skills like drawing, vocational training in the form of craft learning were improved, and started writing with a pen/pencil [15-17].

Also, in children with mental retardation combined with refractory cases of epilepsy, there was a significant reduction in the severity, frequency, duration of epilepsy which has led them to live a better quality of life, improving their cognitive abilities.

For example one child with cerebral palsy had absenteeism from the school for 6 months, and as these children have a short memory, when they join back the classes, the same repetition again is needed to brush up the previously learned things, which is one of the challenges these children have [18-21].

There was a noticeable improvement in concentration, understanding, social behavior, memory, concept formation following YPV intervention, along with this, the frequency, duration and severity of the epilepsy is reduced in the refractory subjects of epilepsy with mental retardation.