Paan staining and the cost of the next person seeing it
TL;DR
- Paan and gutka chewing isn't the civic problem. The choice of where to spit is.
- The lift corner, the stairwell, the wall behind the building are all somebody else's cleaning job, somebody you'll never meet.
- Carry a small spit container, ₹50 at any general store, dispose at the end of the day. This is what habitual users in countries with strict spitting laws have done for decades.
- If you don't chew, photograph a recurring stain location and report it through your municipal corporation's complaint portal. The clean wall makes the next chewer hesitate.
Contents
The moment
You're in the lift of an office building in BKC, Mumbai. Going up to the 14th. The lift slows at floor 7. The doors open on a corner where the wall meets the floor. There is a sunburst of dried red paan stain, layered, weeks old. Someone who works in this building has been spitting in this corner for some time. The doors close. By the time you step out at 14, the stain is not your problem. But it is somebody's problem. The watchman who cleans this corner every morning. The cleaning staff who scrub it on Saturdays.
What's actually happening
Paan and gutka chewing is older than the country. 21.4% of adult Indians use some form of smokeless tobacco per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2016-17. For many it is a daily habit going back decades, and it is not going to disappear because a website asks nicely.
The chewing isn't the civic problem. The spitting is. And the spitting isn't the civic problem either, technically. The civic problem is the choice of where to spit. The lift corner, the stairwell, the sidewalk, the wall behind the building. Places that someone else has to clean.
Two things compound the behaviour. The first is the absence of disposal options. The second is the slow normalisation of stained walls. Once a corner is stained, the next user feels less inhibition. The first stain matters most.
What works better
Three honest paths, by order of practicality.
First, chew only where you can spit privately. Chew at home, at the dhaba with a designated spot, where a bin or sink is available. Not on the move, not in offices, not in public transport, not in lifts.
Second, carry a spit container. A small plastic bottle, or a discreet tin with a tissue at the bottom. Spit into it. Dispose at a bin at the end of the day. Habitual users in countries with strict spitting laws have done this for decades.
Third, when neither is feasible, find a drain. A storm drain, a sink, a toilet. Walk the extra 50 metres. Don't make the lift or the wall your spittoon.
What does not work: spitting "discreetly" against a wall, spitting from a moving vehicle, spitting into water bodies. Each still leaves a stain and still compounds.
Why it matters
The health argument is real: tobacco-related cancers, including oral cancers linked to smokeless tobacco, kill tens of thousands of Indians annually per ICMR's National Cancer Registry. The legal argument is real too: spitting in public is prosecutable under BNS Section 270 (formerly IPC 268) plus state-level municipal acts; fines range ₹100-₹5,000 by city. Neither is usually the reason to stop. Most readers are not going to stop today.
The reason that lands is that the stain on the lift wall on floor 7 has a cleaner. The cleaner is a person. They are not paid extra to scrub paan stains. They scrub them because someone decided the corner mattered less than the inconvenience of finding a drain.
Try this next time
If you chew, get a small spit-container today. ₹50 at any general store. Carry it for a week. Notice how often you would have spat publicly and didn't.
If you don't chew, the small civic act available to you is photographing a recurring stain location and reporting it through your municipal corporation's complaint portal. The corporation paints over the stain. The clean wall makes the next chewer hesitate.
Quick check
1. You're a daily paan chewer who works in an office tower in Lower Parel. You're about to step into a lift. You have a mouthful. What's the right move?
Select an answer.
2. You see a recurring red paan stain in the stairwell of your apartment building. It's been there for at least a month, possibly months. Several people in the building chew paan. You don't. What's the most useful civic move available to you?
Select an answer.