The main objective of personal hygiene is to protect our body from harmful microbes and toxins, there by protecting ourselves from diseases.

Personal hygiene can be practiced in the following ways:

1. Brush your teeth every morning as soon as you wake up, after taking food and before going to bed at night.

2. Defecate every day. After defecating, wash your hands and legs with soap.

3. Take bath everyday with clean water.

4. Wash your hands with soap before taking food.

5. Take head bath at least twice a week.

6. Cut your nails regularly.

7. Wear clean washed clothes every day. .

8. Wear foot wear to avoid the entry of microbes into your body.

9. Avoid uncovered, rotten and stale food.

Person without personal hygiene is prone to various diseases.

Skin diseases and protection:

Skin covers our body. It is like a protective, shield. As it is the outer membrane of our body, it is affected with different weather conditions and micro organisms. Sometimes  disease causing micro organisms enter the skin and cause skin diseases.

Common skin diseases observed in children and adults:

1). Itching

2). Measles

3). Eczema

4). Pellagra

5). Acne

6). Scabies

7). Ring worm

8). Psoriasis

Prevention of skin diseases:

1. Take bath everyday and wear clean washed clothes.

2. Keep your skin clean and gentle. By cleaning your skin with soap or flour mixture, it is freed from dirt and disease causing microbes.

3. During winter skin becomes dry & rough due to cracks. To prevent this, apply oil or Vaseline.

4. Diseases like scabies, ring worm are contagious. The clothes used by persons affected with these diseases should not be used by others.

5. Do not use the soap used by others.

6. The sweat pores in the skin are closed by applying excess beauty creams. This prevents the normal functioning of skin. Therefore, use them sparingly

By taking the above measures one can keep one's skin clean and healthy.

How to take Eye - Care:

let us learn some more ways of taking care of eyes.

1. Do not look directly at the sun, or strong light produced during welding, thundering etc. Do not look at sun during an eclipse.

2. Read and write in sufficient light. Do not watch television for too long.

3. Eat leafy vegetables, carrot, papaya, mangoes.

4. Vitamin - A is required for healthy eyes and to prevent diseases like night blindness. Therefore, infants should be compulsorily fed with mother's milk. Mother's milk contains large amounts of Vitamin - A.

5. Vitamin - A, doses are available in the primary health centres. This should be administered to children once in six months.

6. Stay away / Keep distances from the people suffering from conjunctivitis.

7. If you suffer from watery! teary eyes and blurred vision, consult an eye specialist (ophthalmologist) immediately.

Taking Care of Teeth:

Healthy teeth play a prominent role in our health. Teeth play an important role in tearing, grinding and chewing food. Teeth are formed during childhood. Therefore, it is essential to take nutritious food at this stage. Milk, substances containing calcium should be taken in large quantities.

Let us now learn few more ways of taking care of our teeth:

1. Clean your mouth after taking food. Otherwise food particles remain in the gaps between the teeth. Bacteria act on these food particles and cause bad breath and tooth decay.

2. Do not use pins, needles to remove food particles left in the gaps between the teeth.

3. Consumption of more chocolates, sweets, ice creams causes tooth decay. Therefore, eat them sparingly. Whenever you eat them, gargle your mouth.

4. Presence of fluorine in drinking water damage teeth by forming yellow streaks on teeth. Avoid water containing fluorine for drinking purpose.

5. Deficiency of Vitamin C leads to swelling and bleeding of gums. Citrus fruits contain more Vitamin - C. Consume them regularly.

6. If you have any teeth problems such as in the arrangement of teeth etc., or to have more information on dental care, consult a dentist, and take his / her advice or treatment.

Community Hygiene :

1).  Along with personal hygiene, cleanliness of our surroundings is also necessary to maintain community healthy. Therefore, it is our responsibility to keep our surroundings neat and clean.

2). Community partnership is essential in conserving the environment. Panchayats and Municipalities provide us many facilities. We should use them with commonsense.

3). Water should not be allowed to stagnate. Sewage water should be disposed properly. Drains should be built to avoid stagnation. If there is stagnant water, kerosene or phenol should be sprayed to prevent the growth of mosquitoes and their larvae. Measures like keeping the roads clean without garbage heaps, sprinkling bleaching powder along the roads should be taken to keep the surroundings clean.

4). Defecation and urination should not be done in public places. Every house should have a toilet. Garbage should be dropped only in the garbage bins. These bins should be emptied frequently and garbage should be disposed far away from the village.

5). Community has to take initiation to prevent the prevalence of epidemics contagious diseases during certain specific climatic conditions. Vaccinations should be administered to everybody. Smoking (Smoking in public) should be prohibited. Trees should be grown in open places and along the sides of roads.

6). Bathing and washing clothes near wells and borewells should not be allowed. Water should not be let to stagnate at such places.

7). Washing cattle, immersing coloured idols, made with poisonous chemicals, washing vehicles, defecating and urinating in lakes and streams should be avoided.

Waste Management:

In our everyday life we perform various activities. To perform these activities we use different materials. From these materials, some waste products are formed. If these waste products keep on increasing, they cause harm to us and also to our environment.

Using materials and things more than the requirement and the inability to use the available things properly is a problem. This also results in increased production of waste.

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle of waste :

We should try to reduce the production of waste from our daily life activities. We can reuse some of the waste materials by making some minor changes and repairs to them. Some of them can be recycled. We can protect our environment by reducing, reusing and recycling the waste.

Management of solid waste:

Waste produced from houses, canteens, hotels like left over food materials, shedded leaves and garbage can be changed into compost.

Changing garbage / waste into compost :

When soil and garbage / waste are put in a pit layer by layer and water is sprinkled every day, after some days the waste decays due to the action of microorganisms and compost is formed. This can be used as manure to plants.

Advantages of using compost :

1. The organic material present in garbage changes into manure, which is required by plants and crops.

2. Usage of chemical fertilizers is reduced, with the use of compost thus reducing the soil and water pollution.

3. Removing the garbage in the surroundings will keep our surroundings clean.

Vermicompost:

Now a days farmers are yielding good results by using vermicompost, the compost prepared by using earthworms.

Earthworm is one of the animals which is helpful to us. It is called as "Farmer's friend". Using vermicompost in place of chemical fertilizers will make the soil more fertile.

Preparation of Vermicompost:

Make a pit in the ground. In the lower portion of the pit, put fibre. On the fibre layer, keep organic waste and cow dung layer by layer. More number of earthworms are to be kept in the upper layers. The physical, chemical and biological activities of earthworms change the waste into manure. They degrade waste and improve soil aeration. They act as crushers by making the waste upside down. They act as mixers by mixing the soil. They take the organic waste as their food. After this food is digested, they excrete, excreta containing nitrogenous substances. This is called as Vermicompost.

Using vermicompost for plants and crops will not only increase yield but also decreases expenditure. It increases the fertility of soil. It reduces the useless waste at home.