Perceptions, experiences, expectations, and challenges of Indian public health programs

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a wake-up call for India’s public health system. Public health if aided by strong political will, academic reforms, and awareness among youth (as a career choice)–will get a boost. Skilled public health professionals would be expected to play a key role in strengthening public health systems. Thus, to bring deep structural health reforms, it is imperative to analyse the perceptions of key public health stakeholders. In this study, we explored stakeholders’ perspectives about public health, and their views regarding the current state of public health education. Thirty-nine semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted during 2017–2018 across India among stakeholders that included students of public health programs, public health professionals (PHPs), faculty of public health institutions, employers of public health graduates, and policymakers. Thematic analysis of the data was undertaken focusing on 10 themes emanating around the focus areas of the study. Public health stakeholders suggested that for building a competent public health workforce there is a need to match supply and demand of PHPs, create job opportunities, institutionalising a large body of guidance such as a separate Ministry or Council of public health (for educational institutions, quality assurance of curriculum etc.). Within India, the public health profession & education remains under-researched. This study is the first from a lower middle income country (LMIC) & from Asia to offer insight about public health programs–from policy, education, and professional perspective.