One of the nicest things about coming home to Calcutta is that you can spit freely on the roads,” joked a Singapore-based Bengali software engineer who was here on a holiday recently. Tiptoeing across a street splattered with spit, he continued in the same ironic vein, “Denied this basic human right we Bengalis feel homesick in a place like Singapore. There you not only get fined for spitting on the roads but you may also find yourself spending nights in jail.”

Alas! What the visiting Singapore-based Bengali software engineer does not know, however, is that Calcutta, as well as the rest of West Bengal, actually makes it illegal for its residents to exercise this “basic human right”. Indeed, anti-spitting regulations exist in West Bengal and Calcutta, even if there doesn’t seem to be any apparent attempt to enforce or implement them. Says Calcutta mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, “Part of the problem of enforcing such regulations, especially those which relate to non-criminal and petty offences like spitting, is that there is virtually no public consciousness that this is an offence, let alone there being any public awareness that it is offensive.”

So what does the law actually say? According to legal experts, the matter is dealt with broadly in the Indian Penal Code’s Section 268, which has to do with creating a “public nuisance”. It states, “A person is guilty of public nuisance, who… causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public or to the people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity… or cause injury, obstruction, danger or annoyance to person who may have occasion to use any public right.”

Aryak Dutta, advocate, Calcutta High Court, explains, “While this provision does not deal specifically with ‘spitting,’ it allows for a person to be booked under this section if his act of spitting could be proved to be a cause of public nuisance.”

However, the West Bengal and Calcutta Police Acts do deal specifically with spitting as a punishable offence. In 2003, The West Bengal Prevention of Spitting in Public Place Act banned spitting in public places. Section 7 of the act provides for a fine up to Rs 200 and the law is applicable in Calcutta as well as the suburbs of Calcutta and other parts of West Bengal. And yet, everyone from state government to municipal corporation authorities to the police, admit to being unable to contain the menace, which continues unabated. “This kind of public nuisance cannot be fully eradicated by force or legal measures,” reiterates Mayor Bhattacharya. He adds, “It depends to a large extent on a person’s sense of decency and respect for his environment and fellow citizens for such public nuisances to be done away with completely. For instance, you cannot impose a law about aesthetic sense. Even for laws which relate to such matters as spitting or littering or polluting to be effective, you have to rely on the public’s sense of decency and decorum.” The mayor, however, feels that attempts have been made in recent times to improve the situation by making the public more environment and health conscious.

“For instance, we have constructed public lavatories in various parts of the city for the common people to access in order to check the problem of people using public spaces as toilets. We have also put up garbage bins in many public places like parks to contain the problem of littering.” He said that he was delighted when one day on his way to work he spotted a woman riding pillion on a motorbike tuck in a candy wrapper inside her purse rather than chuck it on the road. “It made me realise that people are gradually becoming more conscious of their environment. I think that more than the enforcement of any law it is the public’s sense of right or wrong that will make the difference.”

According to police officials, other than “a few stray incidents” not too many people have been charged with the offence of spitting. “In India, it is impractical to think of enforcing a law that punishes such offences as spitting in public places, given the low levels of health and environment consciousness,” observed a high-placed police official. He added, “If we started imposing the law, we would perhaps end up having to arrest every second person on the streets of Calcutta.”

The common man on the street too seems to be more or less oblivious of the law, let alone finding any justification for using the public pavements as spittoons. “You can’t expect me to swallow it, can you,” asks a man, caught working up a throaty phlegm just before the act.

And another man admits, “I am aware of the law and believe me I am extremely environmentally conscious. But even a person like me sometimes needs to spit because if you look around you Calcutta is not exactly the cleanest place on earth. If you have to pass open garbage dumps that make your stomach churn with its stink, there is no way you can avoid the urge to spit every now and then.”

Call it then the “Spit for Spat” phenomenon. And many in the city’s population, like those in the government and police, are extremely sceptical of the anti-spitting law coming into force in the near future.