An Air India flight attendant recently sparked a conversation by calling out passengers for leaving behind piles of litter inside an aircraft after landing. In an Instagram video, the flight attendant showed wrappers and other waste strewn across the cabin floor, reminding travellers that basic manners should not end once a flight is over.
The incident came close on the heels of another public appeal from Indian Railways. A Railway official of the much-discussed Vande Bharat Sleeper Express urged passengers to respect public property and maintain hygiene, remarking that only those who know how to use toilets properly and care for shared spaces deserve to travel on such premium services.
These are not isolated incidents. They expose a much larger problem: the alarming lack of civic sense among many Indians while using public transport, particularly public toilets.
At a time when India aspires to emerge as a “Vishwaguru” and is investing billions in world-class infrastructure, the state of many public toilets presents a sobering contradiction. Despite improvements in sanitation infrastructure under the Swachh Bharat Mission, many facilities quickly become dirty, unhygienic and, in some cases, unusable—not because they are poorly built, but because they are poorly used.
Unfortunately, the problem lies less with infrastructure and more with behaviour.
For travellers, especially women, the condition of public toilets turns every journey into an ordeal. Many consciously avoid eating or drinking before travel to escape the discomfort of using filthy toilets. Elderly passengers and people with disabilities face similar hardships.
Why do many Indians neglect basic toilet hygiene when cleanliness has long been central to our civilisational ethos? Ancient Indian scriptures regarded “shaucha” (cleanliness) as a core virtue, along with truth, self-discipline and compassion. The Vedas and Upanishads viewed cleanliness as both a moral and spiritual duty, while Mahatma Gandhi famously declared that sanitation was even more important than political freedom. A society, he argued, cannot call itself civilised if it fails to keep its surroundings clean.
The disconnect, therefore, is not cultural but behavioural. Over time, many Indians have come to view public spaces as someone else’s responsibility. Homes are kept immaculate, while public toilets, railway coaches and bus stations are often treated with indifference. This mindset, reinforced by the belief that sanitation is solely the job of cleaners or government agencies, has eroded the sense of collective ownership, essential for maintaining shared facilities.
Moreover, this mindset has deep historical roots. During the colonial period, public infrastructure was seen as government property rather than collective community assets. Decades later, this psychological distance persists. Government property is still viewed as belonging to “someone else.”
India’s challenge is not a lack of values but a failure to translate them into everyday civic behaviour. Countries with clean public spaces have achieved this through a combination of education and enforcement. In Japan, children clean their own classrooms, learning that cleanliness is everyone’s responsibility. Singapore reinforces the same lesson through school education, sustained public campaigns and strict penalties for littering and vandalism.
Civic sense must begin in the classroom. Along with road safety and environmental awareness, schools should teach toilet etiquette as a life skill from the primary level.
Secondly, India needs far more clean, accessible and well-maintained public toilets. An adequate network of facilities would discourage open urination, particularly among men, while ensuring that women are not forced to search for safe and hygienic spaces.
Public toilets should operate on a nominal user-fee model to fund regular cleaning, attendants and maintenance. Like airport washrooms, they should be inspected frequently to ensure consistent hygiene. Public transport authorities must also strictly enforce rules against littering, vandalism and unhygienic behaviour, backed by surveillance and digital monitoring.
The writer is a journalist.