Introduction:
In Bangladesh, according to ‘Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005 (Amendment 2013)’ smoking is prohibited in public places & public transports. Owner/caretaker/controller/manager of public places & transports are responsible for proper implementation of this law.

Objectives:
To assess the compliance to tobacco control (TC) law in public places of 10 districts and determine effective interventions which can be applied in large scale throughout the country to reduce the usage of tobacco products and increase the compliance.

Methods:
A cross-sectional observational survey was conducted in August’ 19 in 430 public places of 10 randomly selected upazilas/sub-districts of 10 districts in Khulna division. The public places categorized as educational institutions, offices, healthcare facilities, recreational facilities, eating facilities & transit stations were surveyed. The study tool was adapted from a compliance guide developed by partners of the Bloomberg Initiatives to reduce tobacco use.

Results:
The overall compliance rate to TC law was 73.31%. Among public places, highest compliance was seen in healthcare facilities (83.28%) and lowest in transit stations (57%) and recreational facilities (63.74%). No-smoking signage\'s comply with TC law has been found inadequately (18.60%) in the visited public places. No active smoking was observed in 86.51% of public places. Active smoking behavior has been found to be significantly associated with absence/presence of smoking aids [Fisher’s exact test = 16.319; p= 0.001] and cigarettes/bidi butts [χ2 test = 131.774, p= 0.000].

Conclusion(s):
Increasing coverage with no-smoking signage and ensure absence of smoking aids will help in reducing the active smoking and thus increasing the overall compliance to TC law. Furthermore, accentuate effort on enforcing the TC law in transit stations and recreational facilities by law enforcer are mandatory. Additionally, the owner/caretaker/manager of public places needed to be trained & aware and mass media awareness campaign will help to attain higher compliance to TC law in Bangladesh.