Basic Course for Guide Captains Self Learning Module No.

Health Rules
As a responsible Guide Captain you will certainly agree that the exercise of
proper personal hygiene is one of the essential parts of our daily life. Many
people may not understand what good or bad personal hygiene is. The
prevention of communicable diseases, like diarrhoea, trachoma and many others
is highly possible through the application of proper personal hygiene. One needs
to learn the proper practice of personal hygiene and use this for the prevention
and control of important public health diseases that are prevalent in the locality.

Objectives
At the end of this Module, you should be able to:
1. Explain what is personal health and hygiene necessary for the girls.
2. Understand the importance of cleanliness.
3. Explain what is a balanced diet.
4. Know the eight health habits.
5. List out the six health rules.

Thought for Reflection

To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we
shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our
mind strong and clear. Water surrounds the lotus flower, but
does not wet its petals.
- Buddha

Personal Health
Eating breakfast, getting enough sleep, and fitting in time for exercise are
important for maintaining one’s health. The key is paying attention to how one’s
body reacts to the way you treat it.
The girls of Guide age are always in a hurry and will not care about themselves
except to have fun and laughter because they have excess energy. But as a
Guide Captain you must be aware of the importance of the girls’ health because
she is in the growing stage.

To be strong and bold the Guide has to grow for which she requires blood inside
her body to be pure and good. Blood is food to the body just as water is to the
plants. So to get good Blood the Guide must eat good food.

Balanced Diet
You as a Guide Captain should know what good food is. It means healthy
vegetables, meat, bread and fruits. Any food taken beyond the required quantity
is not wanted by the body and will be thrown out as waste. You must be able to

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impress upon your Guides not to take too much of the same food which may lead
to sickness. Motivate the Guides to:

 Stay healthy
 Stay energized
 Stay safe

Diet such as greens, grains, cereals, lentils, fruits,

vegetables, and milk are helpful to the growth of
the body. Show the Guides the Food Pyramid
chart and explain using simple terms. It is
important to advice them on how much food to
take in parties outside their home:

 Fats and sweets - eat less.

 Milk products (milk, custard, milk sweets,
ice cream) - take 2 servings
 Meat varieties - take 2 Servings
 Vegetable varieties - take 3 servings
 Fruit varieties - take 2 servings
 Grain varieties - take 6 servings

This will help to maintain the body and grow

strong. You should remind the Guides to chew
their food for proper digestion. Having eaten
good food whatever the body does not want will
be thrown as waste, which has to be cleared out
every morning as stools in the toilet. After going to the toilet she should wash her
hands with soap.

Breathing properly
It is important to strengthen one’s blood by putting fresh air into it. The blood
needs air, and it keeps passing through the lungs, in the middle of the body,
trying to get some of the air, which we breathe in through our nose. We need to
help the blood as much as we can by taking in deep breaths of good fresh air.
We take in pure air through the nose and breathe out impure air through the
mouth. This is rhythmic action and the body does this to keep us alive. When we
breathe in pure air, the blood in the body takes in the oxygen from the air and
gives out carbon dioxide, which is impure air. Thus the blood gets purified.
Breathing good air is good for the body and as a Guide Captain you must remind
your Guides of breathing through the nose and breathing out through the mouth.
Also the girls must know about the germs that will enter the body if they breathe
through the mouth and must therefore avoid it to stay healthy. Use of a
handkerchief should to be taught when crossing polluted areas, dustbins, when
somebody is sweeping the roads so as to avoid air pollution and protect themself
from such bad atmosphere.

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Regular Exercise
Exercise is very important. Simply taking food without exercise will make one lazy
and increase the fat content in the body. Baden-Powell has introduced the Six
exercises to be done in open air in the
morning. You as a Guide Captain
must learn, practice and adapt them in
daily life to stay healthy and strong.
This will enable you to teach the
Guides the required exercises in an
orderly manner without strain and by
your example they will follow it in their
daily life. B.-P. introduced these exercises for thanking God in the morning, to
keep the body fit and flexible from head to toe.

Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene is a concept that is commonly used in medical and public health
practices. It is also widely practised at the individual level and at home. It involves
maintaining the cleanliness of our body and clothes. Personal hygiene is personal,
as its name implies. In this regard, personal hygiene is defined as a condition
promoting sanitary practices to the self. Everybody have their own habits and
standards that they have been taught or that they have learned from others.
Generally, the practice of personal hygiene is employed to prevent or minimise
the incidence and spread of communicable diseases.

Difference between cleanliness and hygiene. The term cleanliness should

not be used in place of hygiene. Cleaning in many cases is removing dirt, wastes
or unwanted things from the surface of objects using detergents and necessary
equipment. Hygiene practice focuses on the prevention of diseases through the
use of cleaning as one of several inputs. For example, persons clean the floor of
a health centre using detergent, mop and broom. They might also use chlorine
solution to disinfect the floor. The cleaning process in this example is the removal
of visible dirt, while the use of chlorine solution removes the invisible
microorganisms. Hygienic practice encompasses both cleaning for the removal of
physically observable matters and the use of chlorine for the removal of
microorganisms. The hygiene practice in this example aims at preventing the
spread of disease-causing organisms. Cleaning is a means to achieve this task.

Good personal hygiene habits include:

1. Washing the body often. If possible, everybody should have a
shower or a bath every day. However, there may be times
when this is not possible, for example, when people are out
camping or there is a shortage of water. If this happens, a swim or a wash
all over the body with a wet sponge or cloth will do. The armpits and the
bottom should be washed daily.
2. Cleaning the teeth at least once a day. Brushing the teeth
after each meal is the best way of making sure that gum
disease and tooth decay are avoided. It is very important to
clean teeth after breakfast and immediately before going to
bed.

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 3. Washing the hair with soap or shampoo at least once a week.
4. Earwax accumulates in the ear canal that leads from the outer ear to the
ear drum. As the secretion comes out of the ear it collects dust particles
from the air. Daily washing with soap and water is enough to keep the
outer ear clean. A person should not reach farther than she can with her
little finger into her ear. Putting in hairpins, safety pins or blunt-edged
things for cleaning purposes might harm the ear. If one feels wax has
accumulated and is plugging her ears and interfering with hearing, she
should consult her doctor.
5. Washing hands with soap after going to the toilet.
6. Washing hands with soap before preparing and/or eating food. During
normal daily activities, such as working
and playing, disease-causing germs may
get onto the hands and under the nails. If
the germs are not washed off before
preparing food or eating, they may get
onto the food.
7. Changing into clean clothes. Dirty clothes should be washed with laundry
soap before wearing them again.
8. Hanging clothes in the sun to dry. The sun's rays will kill
some disease-causing germs and parasites.
9. Long fingernails and toenails tend to accumulate or trap
dirt on the underside. Keeping
nails trimmed and in good shape
weekly is important in maintaining good health.
Clip nails short along their shape but do not cut
them so close that it damages the skin.
10. Turning away from other people and covering the nose and mouth with a
tissue or the hand when coughing or sneezing. If this is not done, droplets
of liquid containing germs from the nose and mouth will be spread in the
air and other people can breathe them in, or the droplets can get onto food.

The Six Health Rules:

1. Breathing Fresh Air
2. Consuming Good Food
3. Drinking Plenty of water
4. Doing Regular exercise
5. Having Regular toilet habits
6. Wearing Clean Clothing

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 An Attempt to Recollect

Try testing your memory by answering

the following questions:

1. What are the six food varieties contained in the Food Pyramid?
2. How to strengthen one’s Blood?
3. How are the 6 exercises introduced by B.-P. useful to us?
4. What are the Six health rules?
5. When do you have to wash your hands with soap?

Fill in the blanks:

1. Eating breakfast, getting enough _________, and fitting in time for
exercise are important for maintaining one’s health.
2. Physical fitness brings _______________ and long life.
3. To be strong and bold the Guide has to grow for which she requires
________ inside her body to be pure and good.
4. Diet such as greens, grains, _________, lentils, ________, vegetables,
and milk are helpful to the growth of the body.
5. Personal hygiene is defined as a condition promoting ____________
practices to the self.

For further Reading:

1. Girl Guiding in India*

* Books published by The Bharat Scouts and Guides, National Headquarters, New Delhi.

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 How much have I got it right?

Here are the answers to your memory test:

1. What are the six food varieties contained in the Food Pyramid?
Fats and sweets; Milk products; Meat varieties; Vegetable varieties;
Fruit varieties; and Grain varieties.

2. How to strengthen one’s Blood?

By putting fresh air into it.

3. How are the 6 exercises introduced by B.-P. useful to us?

They keep the body fit and flexible from head to toe.

4. What are the Six health rules?

Breathing Fresh Air; Consuming Good Food; Drinking Plenty of water;
Doing Regular exercise; Having Regular toilet habits; and Wearing
Clean Clothing.

5. When do you have to wash your hands with soap?

After going to the toilet; before preparing food; and before eating
food.

Fill in the blanks:

1. Eating breakfast, getting enough sleep, and fitting in time for exercise
are important for maintaining one’s health.
2. Physical fitness brings self-control and long life.
3. To be strong and bold the Guide has to grow for which she requires
blood inside her body to be pure and good.
4. Diet such as greens, grains, cereals, lentils, fruits, vegetables, and milk
are helpful to the growth of the body.
5. Personal hygiene is defined as a condition promoting sanitary practices
to the self.