You and I go to Google Maps to avoid a traffic snarl. Raja Narasimhan and Priti Raja go to the app to get trapped in one. Here is why they drive against the tide. Their ride is clothed in decals that bear a message, and a busy road is where it is most read.
The Pune-based couple and their pet labrador Cara drive around in their SUV, letting the vehicle spit out the message — that spitting can kill. After having rolled over vast swathes of Maharashtra and Karnataka, they recently hit Chennai’s busy routes.
Though the pandemic has spawned many of them, anti-spitting campaigns are relevant as long as pathogen-carrying saliva exists alongside an attitude that views the road as a convenient spittoon. The couple started their way back in 2010, responding to the swine flu (2009-10) and the fact that India is a tuberculosis hotspot.
In the following years, Raja would turn his back on a corporate career and Priti on an entrepreneurial engagement to focus on Sare Jahan Se Acha Foundation, a Section 8 not-for-profit company they had founded.
“In the days before COVID-19, our volunteer groups would be working in public places — bus stands and railway stations — where they would do skits and zumba on no-spitting. We have done wall paintings and conducted 20-minute sessions for students from Class VI and above in 150 schools in Pune,” elaborates Priti. “Now, due to social distancing, we did not want to step out and talk to people, but they can read these messages.”
Priti Raja and Raja Narasimhan of Sare Jahan Se Acha Foundation who are on an inter-state tour pushing for a no-spitting culture
The decals speak five languages — English, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi and Kannada. The combination of languages changes with the itinerary. Priti explains that at some point they will head into Gujarat, and then, decals with anti-spitting messages in Gujarati would make it to the metal.
Attitudes can be unyielding to the toughest of edicts. And, to expect awareness stickers to bend one, reeks of Pollyannish optimism at best and ostrich-like naivete at worst. Let us face it: What are the realistic expectations from this exercise?
“We joined hands with volunteer organisations and started pushing for anti-spitting posters in Government offices,” explains Priti, largely referring to how the drive went in Maharashtra, and to some degree in Bengaluru, where again they aligned with NGOs to promote the cause.
Though started in February, their inter-State road tour has been moving in fits and starts, due to the second wave and continuing region-specific lockdown restrictions. Priti points out that these restrictions define the course of the campaign.
