The Great Indian Spitter Bug

I gazed through my room’s window (my break-out zone these days) to disconnect for a few seconds from the always-on screens, and my eyes brimmed with subtle joy when they saw a silver-grey sky with the sun shyly peeping out behind the clouds; a herd of birds flapping their wings and gliding through; a horde of walkers enjoying their evening ritual by the marshy, green lake; the adjoining trees swinging and swaying against the cool breeze; a bustling road with busy traffic and pedestrians/motorcyclists stopping by to shop from the bee-line of hawkers. But those moments of joy were short-lived and ended in a jiffy when I heard a not-so unfamiliar sound ‘Akthoooooo’ that came accompanied by the sight of a pedestrian spitting out! Only to be followed by the street vendor in much the same fashion, with whom he was buying a bag of fruits. Errr!

Gross, disgusting, nauseating or sickening it may be, but then who are to be blamed for this age-old practice that is socially accepted in our country and is a cultural norm. Yes, Paan-eating is declared as the best cultural practice by UNESCO! Laudable and a matter of pride. But, what about the ill-effects Paan-spitting has on public health and hygiene, let alone the permanent stains left on the eater’s teeth? More so during times of a pandemic like the one engulfing us, spitting out in public can prove dangerous too, given the risk of aerosol infection arising out of spewed Paan or saliva. In other times, the same act can cause several other infectious diseases as saliva and mucous can carry live germs up to 24 hours.

We Indians love the contrarian ways of living – be it food, shopping, vacations or festive celebrations. We swear by Kichchidi, Daal-Chawal or Tepla-Khakhra but feast on Pizza, Falafel and Tacos at a brink of an opportunity; we proudly harp on our neighborhood Kirana stores and Khadi garments but cannot do away without Amazon, Levi’s or Gucchi. On most festivals, we worship Goddesses with utmost fervor and devotion and on other days, we treat women as second-class citizens. We boast of our beautiful Himalayas and colorful Rann, but we’ll be the first ones to bag-pack to the Alps or the Caucasus. In much the same way, pissing and spitting in public is very much okay, but kissing and PDA is not!

It’s not that India does not have anti-spitting laws. There are plenty and most states and municipal corporations have approved such laws that entail penalty/fine for spitting out in public. It’s the poor enforcement coupled with ‘so-what’ attitude of the offenders that has marred any progress. In one of the states, civic authorities reportedly placed images of Gods and Goddesses on ceramic tiled-walls of government offices to fend off offenders, but even this couldn’t stop the spit attacks.

Many places of tourist attraction, historical monuments and structures have been disfigured thanks to our Paan. I once saw an image of a sidewalk wall posted by a travel blogger that juxtaposed a wall painted with the gooey crimson red mark against a modern art with a caption that read “Can you differentiate between the Paan-spit and contemporary art?”. Frankly, I wasn’t able to! That might mean, we Indians have found a new market for these spitted-out graffiti and who knows, soon they may be up for auction as NFTs!

If Paan-eating is our culture, why shouldn’t protecting these historical monuments be a part of it? By the same measure, should this not apply to protecting public health? Is Swachh Bharath a mere optics and limited just to cleaning up plastic waste? Can we not have Paan Marshals at designated zones/areas to monitor and check spitting in public like we have for Corona to penalize maskholes?

Unfortunately, answers to these questions remain eluded. What could really help is deep-rooted awareness around public health, hygiene and sanitation linked to the habit of spitting and nose-blowing in public. Citizen groups, NGOs, civic authorities and private sector must collaborate on creating and driving public awareness to stop this menace. Until this happens, the great Indian Spitter bug will continue to have a free run!