The Thook Pledge

Six lines.
Then go be annoying about it.

You will not fix a billion people. You will fix one. Then you will make it socially expensive for everyone standing near you.

  1. 1I will not spit in any public place. Not on a road, not on a wall, not out of a window, not on a platform, not in a stairwell, and not into a corner I have decided does not count.
  2. 2If I have to, I will use a tissue, a pouch, a bin or a washbasin. Carrying a tissue is not difficult. I carry a phone charger everywhere.
  3. 3I will not pretend this is somebody else's habit. I will notice when people I know do it, and I will say something — lightly, once, without a lecture.
  4. 4I will never confront a stranger over it. Not worth my evening, not worth my safety, not worth theirs.
  5. 5I will not treat this as a poor people's problem, because it isn't one. The habit crosses every income, job, religion and state in this country.
  6. 6I will say thank you to the person cleaning it up. Out loud. At least once.

First name or a nickname. Stays on your device — there is no server collecting these.

Want to do more than a pledge?

Print the posters

Every quote on Thook Gyaan downloads as a poster. Print a few and put them exactly where the stains already are. That placement does most of the work.

Log the hotspots

Forty reports from one station is data. Data is what a municipal commissioner cannot politely ignore.

Ask for bins and spittoons

Half of this is infrastructure. A pouch or a bin at a paan shop removes the excuse entirely — see what has actually worked.

Help someone quit

The stains are the symptom. Gutkha and paan masala are the cause, and they cause far worse than stains. India's national tobacco quitline is 1800-11-2356.