Smoking and spitting in public places are the two immoral acts among us that reflect our moral degradation. It goes against our moral standards. The underlying moral principles of our society don’t permit us to do any kind of offense that may prove us animals, not social animals as quoted by Aristotle. It is a place where all sectors private as well as public perform different activities in order to cater services to common people. We come across different service agents like; Food stores, Transports, Hospitals, Medical shops, Revenue departments, and institutions as well.
These are important for the normal functioning of life. The community norms are applied to each class of society whether it is elite or labor class. Every individual in society has a right to live with dignity and respect. He should take care of community standards and do not try to breach them. Morals are imbibed principles through which one can be recognized as a morally good member of society. It is morals that shape our character and develop the overall personality of a man. One is not identified by his wealth and money but he is to be identified by the moral principles he has attained. Social norms do never show a positive inclination towards the elite class rather it has their own parameters to measure the worth of individuals irrespective of class distinctions.
Decency elevates us so high but we ignore it by following nasty things in public places. We should have a proper sense not to commit such absurd acts which will have a negative impact on us. We should follow the community standards rather than we go on spitting and smoking in public places. I have seen many people who even do not care about it. They even light up cigarettes in medical shops which goes against their norms.
Likewise, in public transport, we face the same problem. Passengers in buses light up cigarettes and leave their butts on the seats. It is an offense if we try to do this like this. How these passengers can think about it? Shall it make them more respected citizens or disrespected? There can be a number of such examples which do happen in public places but we always cover them.
Public places are always flooded with people as these places provide us with daily services in various forms. How disgusting it is! If someone litters on roads without caring for others what they will think about him? There are nowadays metalled lanes that connect us to our homes but unfortunately, they are laden up with spits. It is not to good spit like this where there is a rush of pedestrians. They may feel it very bad because all of having different attitudes. Some may control and some may slap you on the spot. Someone’s spit can prove fatal to a healthy person if he will not cover his mouth while spitting in public places. It is an agent for causing various infections.
Let’s look at our Municipality areas where we see the sweepers in the wee hours to clean public roads and places with full dedication and enthusiasm but when they see such blotted scars on roads. Obviously, they feel it is very bad to clean up. Why do we lose our moral values in such a way that we are being treated as animals outside the home? If we strictly follow public norms and principles we will never be degraded by others.
When you’re exercising you build up an excess of saliva and sometimes that means spitting, he argues. As long as you direct the saliva towards the ground rather than in someone’s face there’s no problem, he believes. But context is all.
We need to rethink and look at our community standards and should always try to follow them. Both smoking and spitting in public places have been made a punishable offense in Indian states and such repeated offenders can possibly face imprisonment which was announced by Health Minister Rajesh Tope seven months back. The Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation has imposed a fine of Rs. 1000 if anyone is caught red-handed in spitting public places. These persistent offenses are not acceptable in accordance with Municipal laws. We consider such mistakes as simple as we committed daily. No one can demoralize you unless and until you have good values and manners to live morally and peacefully well. Avoid such offenses which are undesirable to our community standards and may have negative consequences. Lastly, I conclude it with this special line; ‘Public Place Par Thookna Aur Cigarette Peena Mana Hai.’
Author is a teacher. He can be mailed at ahangermudasir911@gmail.com
