Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav stopped over at the Bangalore City station for inspection a month ago. Alas, Lalu had forgotten to bring along one of his vital baggages—his spittoon. Alarmed railway officials rushed to a State-run shop and bought not one but two brass spittoons for the minister. After that, Lalu could spit with relief.
Not all of us find ourselves in the midst of such media glare in daily life nor are we as conscientious about maintaining cleanliness in public space. The end result—the City station has now emerged as one vast spit zone.
To know how universally prevalent this problem is, you don’t have to step further than the entrance of the station. The corners of the white walls of the reservation booking counter are awash with red spittle. The subways connecting platforms 1 to 10, the outer walls of the electrical switch rooms, the battery box, platform corners, bathroom walls—not a single area has escaped from the spit-happy traveller. A comical scene indeed, particularly since 2007 has been declared as ‘Cleanliness Year’ for the Railways.

It is amusing to read appeals calling for non-spitting at certain points. The ticket-collector at the station’s entrance has a steel box with a slit to drop in collected tickets. A single line scrawled on the box with a pen reads: ‘Please don’t spit inside!’ The  Nandini outlet has a printout outside urging the  public not to spit there.  
For smoking inside the station, you could be charged Rs 200 on the spot. But if you spit inside, you could go scot free. A top railway official was heard thundering to his colleagues:  “Whatever improvement Lalu Prasad Yadav brings about in Railways, he will not bring about any legislation against spitting as it is a way of life for him.”
 The job of the person in-charge of station cleanliness must indeed be a trying one if you have to monitor so many mouths. R E Noah, Deputy Station Manager (Dy SMR), Cleanliness, South Western Railway, is the man in that hot seat. “The cleanliness staff do their best to remove the mess. But despite using sulphuric acid, it is very difficult to remove paan stains,” he says.

A majority of those who indulge in this behaviour belong to the lower strata of society, Noah says, adding, “The worst part is that they do not even feel for it. It is a part of their life. When you warn them not to do it, they look at you as if you are saying something abnormal.” The spitters are brazen particularly under the cover of darkness, the Dy SMR says. So, the culprits are mainly those who travel by night trains from Bangalore.
A top railway official said that there is no provision under the Railways Act to book a person for spitting. The only option is to book  a case under Section 145 (b) and (c) of the Railways Act 1989 which talk of ‘drunkenness’ or ‘nuisance behaviour’.

A station inspector who once booked a case against a person for spitting was caught by a Vigilance Officer who insisted that no case could be booked for spitting. So now, the few cases booked against those caught in the act of spitting are booked as ‘smoking’ offences.

In the absence of proper spittoons in the station, the options to discharge spittle for those hooked to the addictives are limited. The only outlet available right now are garbage baskets around. The Railways had placed an order for 50 spittoons to a contractor Ramesh some time ago. It has still not been supplied.
Until some legislation is introduced to empower railway officials to book those spitting, the fight to ensure cleanliness in stations will be an uphill task. For now, the red spittle will remain an integral part of Indian railway life.