India has highest rates of oral cancer in the world and rates are still increasing. Oral cancer accounts for one-third of the total cancer cases and 90% of the patients are tobacco chewers. The Govt. of India initiated and enacted the national tobacco-control legislation namely, “The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003”; on 18 May, 2003. Still there is persistence of more number of people with tobacco habits. So, an epidemiological survey for Sangli district was conducted in Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Dental College and Hospital to know the effectiveness of 'Anti - tobacco campaign’

A questionnaire based survey was conducted among tobacco consumers in all age groups for the period of one year. The information was collected from the tobacco consumers and filled up by investigators on the pre-structured pre-tested proforma consisting of questions (QUESTIONNAIRE) related with the identification data, age, sex, occupation, marital status, education, socioeconomic status, type, source & reason of tobacco use, awareness about health hazards due to tobacco use and its source of information.

Information was collected from 573 patients, among them 91.4% were male, 85.1% consumed in smokeless form, 81.3% were literate, 78.8% knew about ill effects of tobacco, 49.1% people had information about anti-tobacco programmes.

In the present study only 49.1% people know about the anti-tobacco campaign among them 86% are literates and 40-60 and above 60 years age group of people are less aware of such programs. So campaign should be designed in such a way that more number of adults, illiterates and literates know about ill-effects of tobacco and also to provide guidance to quit the tobacco.