Background: Government of India has launched ‘Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya’ initiative in 2014, with emphasis on promoting safe and hygiene practices among school children. Providing easy access to hygiene and health education regarding personal hygiene is a simple and cost effective tool for prevention and control of hygiene related health problems including skin diseases. Objectives of the study were to assess the personal hygiene practices of primary school children and to find out the skin diseases related to personal hygiene practices.Methods: The study was conducted among 12 primary schools in an urban poor locality. The availability of hygiene facilities in all the schools was noted. The hygiene practices among the children were collected using pre-designed, semi-structured proforma and clinical examination was done to find out skin diseases among them. Subsequently, all school children were given health education regarding correct hygiene practices. The data was analysed using mean, percentages and Chi-square test.Results: The study included 1404 students. Among them 40.7% took bath daily, 53.7% wore washed undergarments, uniform and socks daily, 56.5% had trimmed nails and 76.7% washed hands with soap and water before eating and after using toilet. On examination, 475 (33.8%) had skin diseases like pityriasis alba (13.2%), pediculosis capitis (12.3%), pyoderma (4.6%) and others. There was significant association between skin diseases and hygiene practices (p<0.001).Conclusions: Improper hygiene practices were associated with skin diseases. Therefore, regular social and behavioural change communication activities on hygiene practices has to be imparted for school children to prevent related skin diseases.

Background: Hygienic practices during menstruation are of considerable importance, as it has a health impact in terms of increased vulnerability to infections. Menstrual hygiene management is a special problem for adolescent girls, particularly when attending school due to limited or lack of access to safe sanitary pads and good sanitary facilities. Government of India under RMNCH+A programme, introduced priority intervention for menstrual hygiene to prevent hygiene related infections. Objectives: (1) To assess the knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls. (2) To assess the menstrual hygiene practices & related infections among the adolescent girls. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 330 adolescent girls who had attained menarche and residents of an urban poor locality Yarab Nagar, which comes under the field practice area of KIMS, Bangalore. Data regarding socio demographic details and menstrual hygiene practices was obtained in a pre-designed, semi structured proforma. All the subjects were examined for any related infections from a trained female doctor. The data was analysed in Microsoft Excel using mean & percentages. Results: The mean age of the study subjects was 13.63 ± 5.76 years. Majority i.e., 306 (92.7%) of them used sanitary pads; whereas, 24 (7.3%) used old clothes as an absorbent during menstruation. Similarly, 98% cleaned the external genitalia with water during menstruation. The common infections related to menstruation were contact dermatitis (7.2%), candidiasis (5.4%) & UTI (3.5%). Conclusion: The knowledge and practice regarding menstrual hygiene was inadequate among the adolescent girls; and this inadequate hygienic practices has led to infections.