WHY DO PEOPLE SPIT IN PUBLIC? A CULTURAL HABIT OR HEALTH CRISIS?

It’s a sight both familiar and discomforting: someone leans to one side of the pavement, clears their throat with ritualistic effort, and spits. Sometimes into a drain, sometimes onto the road, sometimes — unapologetically — in the middle of a shared path.

Spitting in public spaces is not just a health concern — it’s a cultural riddle. Why does it persist, despite awareness campaigns, signage, fines, and growing urban hygiene consciousness?

Is it habit? Rebellion? Necessity? Or a deeply embedded cultural script?

In many South Asian societies, spitting isn’t seen with the same severity as in others. For generations, it has been normalized — part of chewing habits like tobacco, paan, or gutkha, and often performed as a public gesture with no sense of shame. It is, in some cases, even theatrical — the loud gathering of saliva, the practiced arc, the splatter. A kind of public punctuation.

But what once may have passed as routine or “commonplace” has taken on new urgency in densely populated cities. In a post-pandemic world especially, spitting is no longer just impolite — it’s dangerous. It’s not only about aesthetics or manners, but about public health.

Diseases like tuberculosis, hepatitis, and other airborne or droplet-borne illnesses can spread through this casual act. In this context, spitting is not just a cultural carryover — it’s a public hazard. Yet enforcement alone — signs warning of fines, CCTV monitoring — rarely work in isolation. Behavior doesn’t change by punishment alone; it changes when the culture around an action changes.

So how do we shift a habit so deeply ingrained?

We begin by acknowledging it’s not just about the act of spitting — it’s about ownership of public space. In many societies, people treat streets and shared places as someone else’s responsibility. “This isn’t my floor. This isn’t my wall. Someone else will clean it.” That mindset must be addressed just as seriously as the act itself.

Education, empathy, and visibility matter. Campaigns that stigmatize don’t always work — but those that connect the habit to personal and community health, that humanize hygiene, can begin to shift perception.

There’s also the need to offer alternatives. Public spitting is often tied to addiction (chewing tobacco), poor access to spittoons, or even untreated respiratory issues. Solutions must go beyond signage. They must address access, infrastructure, addiction, and awareness — all at once.

So, is public spitting a cultural habit or a health crisis?

It’s both. But more importantly, it’s a call to re-examine how we live together, how we treat shared space, and whether we’re willing to unlearn what we once saw as normal — for the sake of something better.

Because the real question is not just why people spit, but why we’ve accepted it for so long.