country's per capita income and nutritional status of children has gained considerable significance. Intervention studies have consistently demonstrated that communities which received intensive hand washing promotion especially among the care-givers have less childhood diarrhea and respiratory disease. [2-4] Unfortunately, the knowledge and practice of handwashing in the community appears to be poor even today. [5]. According to UNICEF, rates of handwashing around the world are low. Observed rates of handwashing with soap at critical moments i.e., before handling food and after using the toilet-range from 0% to 34%. [6,7] The 3 most frequently reported methods of measuring hand hygiene compliance are direct observation, self-reporting by health care workers, and indirect calculation based on the product usage. [8] Background: Handwashing is listed as one of the single most effective public health intervention which directly and indirectly decreases the mortality among young children by eliminating over 90% of infections. But, unfortunately, the knowledge and practice of hand washing in the community appeared to be poor even today. The present study was carried out to study the handwashing practices of care givers, which could be a critical factor in the development of disease in the young ones. Objective: (i) To study the handwashing practices among caregivers of children under 5 years of age; (ii) To assess and compare the handwashing practices according to the area of residence (Urban/ Rural). Material and Methods: A community based knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) cross-sectional study in the registered field practice areas of both urban and rural field practice areas

No abstract

Background: Maternal mortality and morbidity continues to remain high in India, despite the existence of successive national programs for improving maternal and child health since the 1980s. In 2005, the Government of India launched the National Rural Health Mission to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population, especially the vulnerable populations. Reduction in MMR to 100/100,000 is one of its goals and the Janani Suraksha Yojana is the key strategy to achieve this reduction. But the awareness of scheme is low in women from rural areas and urban slums, especially in low performing states. Aims: To study the comparative awareness of JSY and the socio-demographic factors influencing it, among the recently delivered women (RDWs). Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out in the ten rural areas and urban slums coming under the practice areas of JNMC, AMU, Aligarh for a period of one year. The prevalence of institutional delivery in Uttar Pradesh as found in a study by UNFPA 2008 (50.2%) was used for calculation of sample size. The yielded sample size 300 was selected proportionately from these areas. The study subjects were interviewed by a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. Statistical analysis used:  MS excel, chi square and logistic regression. Results: Awareness regarding the existence of a monetary scheme related to institutional delivery was more in rural areas i.e 75%.  Regarding components   of JSY maximum people (78%) were aware about the cash component. Religion, caste, parity, socio-economic status and place of residence showed a significant statistical association with the level of awareness of JSY. Conclusions: There is an urgent need to strengthen IEC campaigns and monitoring strategies for JSY as well as regularize the monetary flow for the health workers