In a major breakthrough, six states have banned gutka and other tobacco products. The anti-tobacco lobby is calling it a major victory. While the country is fighting the larger battle to ban gutka, Sarfabad in Uttar Pradesh has become the third village to go tobacco free. The Panchayat there has decided to ban gutka after several young people succumbed to critical diseases.

A villager, Sukhbir Singh, said, "There is a Rs 1,000 fine on anyone who sells gutka and a Rs 500 fine on anyone who eats it."

Almost a year since the new Food Safety law banned foods with tobacco and nicotine content, six states have banned gutka, khaini and such pan masala products.

Madhya Pradesh took the first step followed by Kerala and Bihar. Maharashtra banned both gutka and pan masala. After Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, Haryana is expected to ban gutka soon and Goa had already banned it under the public health act.

Public health experts say it is a huge health relief, as India battles 80,000 new oral cancer cases every year.

Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial said, "India is the highest producer of mouth cancers. Apart from that there are several precancerous conditions like Submucous fibrosis in which the mouth of the person doesn't open."

Srinath Reddy of the Public Health Foundation of India said, "It's not just the nicotine, the heavy metals are particularly dangerous and this has been found to be in high quantities in gutka."

Till about a year ago, gutka reigned as a Rs 20,000 crore industry. But now the gutka industry is admitting to losses, and argues that gutka should not be considered as food at all.

Sanjay Bechan, Executive Director, Smokeless Tobacco Federation of India, "The industry is deteriorating once the Supreme Court banned packaging. We were reduced to almost 60 per cent of our size and now this ban by states. Since states are banning, we have suffered losses. Gutka is a scheduled tobacco product. So my legal position is very clear, I am not food, I am tobacco. It's unscientific and undemocratic of the government to ban gutka."

Yet, 5 million children in India are already addicted to oral tobacco and more than 5,000 start using gutka every day.