City activist features on popular photoblog

Odette Katrak from Bengaluru was recently featured on ‘Humans of Bombay’ for her campaign against spitting in public, which she started at the peak of the pandemic in 2020.

A photoblog, ‘Humans of Bombay’ catalogues inspiring stories of Indians. Odette’s story has clocked over 6 lakh views since it was posted on their Instagram page on November 15. While ‘No smoking’ signs are ubiquitous in public places in India, she says that’s not the case with ‘No spitting’ signs, despite spitting being a punishable offence under various municipal laws.

Odette is a former HR and behavioural change professional. Her campaign is part of a large citizen movement Beautiful Bharat, formerly known as Beautiful Bangalore. More than 200 volunteers are behind this, and they have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make spitting in public a punishable offence, she says.

“In the early days of my volunteering, I used to argue with people who would spit. Now, I ask them not to do it politely. Our group makes creative posters or analogies on our social media pages (@beautifulbharatorg) to drive the point home. We make informative videos using clips of influential people such as actor Puneeth Rajkumar to grab people’s attention,” says the 58-year-old resident of Domlur.

They have also made parody of classics like John Lenon’s ‘Imagine’, and ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles.