Yoga-Nari

A mobile application for Bangladeshi urban females to access online Yoga and Meditation sessions conducted by female instructors with instructions in the Bengali language at a very low cost.

This app gives Bangladeshi females (Nari, in Bengali word) (age:14-45 years) access to alternative and long-term mental and physical health wellness practices of Yoga and Meditation from anywhere in Bangladesh. Yoga is a holistic approach to healthy living that helps to connect mind, body, and spirit. It also improves daily living habits, interpersonal skills, and functionality of all the body systems i.e. circulatory, respiratory, hormonal, digestive, excretory, etc. Yoga helps to achieve peace of mind, emotional and internal stability. Meditation, essentially, is a part of yoga, which is mostly performed by an individual sitting at a definite place and trying to focus the energies within the body on a particular object, sound, breath, etc. Anyone can download our application on their devices for free and also can get all information about yoga and meditation practices and their benefits for free. However, to join the live sessions they have to pay a one-time fee for the registration.  Yoga instructors would be highly experienced female yoga instructors with interactions in the Bengali language. Females under the age of 18 but over 14 can join using the NID of their guardians. 

I'm trying to solve the problem of having insufficient sources that can help the female population of Bangladesh to achieve mental wellness and physical fitness through Yoga and Mindfulness-based interventions such as Meditation. According to the World Data Bank, the total female population in Bangladesh is 81.4 million in 2020. 9.21% of the female population belong to the range of 20-24 and 8.93% are within 25-29 years. In Bangladesh, women of varied age groups, suffer from disorders like depression, anxiety, stress, psychological distress, eating disorders, and self-harm propensity. The nationally representative Bangladesh Mental Health Survey of 2018-2019 estimated that 92.3% of persons with diagnosable mental disorders were not receiving mental health treatment. The outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic, it taught us that focusing on mental health is just as important as focusing on physical health. Experiencing inequality and discrimination in society, unemployment, isolation, financial crisis, domestic violence, managing work-life balance, relationship breakdown, marriage issues, supporting/caring for others, social media and internet addiction are significant reasons for the increase in mental health problems of women post-pandemic time. The research titled “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the adult population in Bangladesh: a nationwide cross-sectional study” showed that levels of stress were significantly associated with females (70.9%). As the majority of Bangladeshi females don't get the opportunity to do exercise or go outside during pandemic their mental and physical problems are increasing.

Any female of a minimum age of 14 years to 45 years old will benefit from our solution. In Bangladeshi society, concerns about women's mental health and well-being are generally overlooked, with the idea that they will eventually overcome the issue by themselves. Yoga and Meditation A research article titled, “National survey of yoga practitioners: Mental and physical health benefits” showed that the large majority agreed or strongly agreed that their yoga practice improved their general health (89.5%), energy level (84.5%), happiness (86.5%), sleep (68.5%) and interpersonal relationships (67.0%). Research has shown that Yoga is a preferred adjunctive treatment for depression and anxiety disorders. Yoga can be also suggested as monotherapy for depression as well. With the help of our application, Bangladeshi females will be able to join these practice sessions from anywhere.

We are currently working on creating and distributing a  structured questionnaire with separate segments for questions containing questions on mental health and physical health issues faced by females of different age groups of females in Bangladesh, for example, adolescent and teenage females, young females, and older women. We are going to release an online version of the questionnaire and share that in various groups and pages Bangladeshi females use frequently on popular social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Additionally, when we secure sufficient funding, we will outsource market research and analysis to a third-party organization, to do an in-depth analysis of the wants, needs, and demands of the target population.

Our solution is currently in the Concept Stage. We plan to develop the app for Android and iOS.  We will first develop a beta version of the app for android OS. Our achievements so far:

1. Collaboration with Shah Makhdum Management University to build a dedicated team to manage and carry on various aspects of the app development project.

2. Detailed roles and responsibilities of the application developers team (UI/UX Designers, Android App Developers, Backend Developers, etc), management team, finance team, and marketing team are getting documented.

3. Proposal writing for getting financers on board for the app development is in progress 

4. Initial Market analysis to understand the mental and physical condition of Bangladeshi females is going on.

Our core technology is mobile apps development technology. Our apps will be developed using a development framework. The app will be compatible with the Android operating system and can be downloaded to any android smartphone and other supporting devices.

Our solution is in the concept stage so we currently do not serve our target population of Bangladeshi women of 14-45 years of age. After the pilot project will be launched we plan to serve a minimum of 25,000 people of our target population for the next year. 

Our impact Goals for the apps for next year:

1. to encourage teenagers and young females (14-25 years) years and women (26-45years) to take up yoga and meditation lessons and practice these for achieving better physical and mental health.

2. to bring world-class yoga instructions at the doorstep of any woman with a smartphone at a minimum cost.

3. to bring positive change in the mindset of Bangladeshi women so that they make their wellbeing a priority.

4. To make women feel secure and safe while practicing yoga with female instructors.

5. To aid in minimizing and preventing the mental health problems like depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and physical health by reducing the severity of the conditions like obesity, diabetes, respiratory problems to some extent. 

We will measure the progress in the following ways:

1. Number of app users

2. Apps ratings and reviews

3. Number of users registering to the yoga and meditation program

4. Number of women joining the live sessions

5. Revenue generated from the apps.

6. User experience surveys.

5. we can use SDG indicator 3.4.2 to measure our impact progress  

UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all of all ages".

Target 3.2: Within goal 3  mental health is referred directly in the target to ‘reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being 

Indicator 3.4.2: Suicide mortality rate 

We will conduct a survey among the app's users to understand whether the apps help them to overcome suicidal thoughts to some extent or not.

The following existing barriers you to accomplishing your goals in the next year:

Financial: We face financial barriers as we are yet to secure a financer for the development of the app. Local financers often are disinterested to fund young and new innovators and entrepreneurs.

Market barriers: Yoga Apps are not yet introduced by anyone in Bangladesh. Our initiative will be the first in the country. So it might face some challenges ahead.

I, the team leader, am a freshman at university who is very passionate about the mental and physical well-being of women. She has a great interest in software development and technology. Our team members are mostly Bangladeshi youths who understand the lack of a support system that can address mental and physical fitness in urban and peri-urban areas. 

The researcher and research assistant of the team are working on gathering yoga and meditation-related information, analyzing those, and designing authentic and appropriate yoga lesson plans, meditation instructions. Both the researcher and research assistants are urban females who have both personal interests and educational backgrounds for the research. 

They are working with Our yoga instructors to make a plan for the tutorials. Although our current software developers are less in number and are young, still they are driven and focused on the technical aspects of apps development. The marketing manager has worked abroad and is experienced in the sector. Our accounts are being maintained by an efficient person.

We are currently partners with Shah Makhdum Management University. The university has taken an initiative to conduct a wellness program combining Yoga and Meditation. The university sees potential in creating an app that will help women of Bangladesh to learn and practice Yoga and meditation from the comfort of their homes. Yoga instructors of the university program will conduct the live classes and the university will also facilitate in making Yoga and Meditation practice and instruction tutorial videos in the Bengali Language. University is mentoring our team as well. 

I am a young woman who is the team leader of this yoga app project that aims to serve the women of a developing country. Hence we are qualified for the prize and this prize will provide us financial support and recognition that will be in developing and launching our app successfully.

Our solution aims to serve the important members of society, women and addresses the social crisis of mental health issues in developing country. Hence we are qualified for the prize and this prize will provide us financial support and recognition that will be in developing and launching our app successfully.