Objective: – To assess the role of visual inspection with acetic acid as an alternative to cytology (pap smear) in screening for cervical cancer in low resources set up. Material and Methods: – Women with > 30 years of age visiting the gynecology out patient with varied complaints of District Hospital, Udhampur, were subject to visual inspection of cervix with acetic acid (VIA) and pap smear. Result: – In the present study, the sensitivity of pap smear came to be 90% and specificity came out to be 73%. The sensitivity of VIA in detecting cervical cancer was 90% and the specificity was 42.17%. Conclusion: – VIA is comparable to pap smear (cytology) and it can be an alternative screening test due to its high sensitivity, simple administration and low cost in low resources set up.