Unjust discipline-based wage differentials in public health in India: a call to action

Public health professionals and researchers in India with allied health and non-health backgrounds are routinely undercompensated and not treated on par with their counterparts from a medical background. In this article, we use the practice of discipline-based wage differentials in public health as an entry point to examine the underlying structures, priorities, and prevailing perception of public health norms and professional image, along with the ethical implications these issues pose for equity and justice in public health in India. The unfair remuneration practices for professionals and researchers in the public health field are symptomatic of deeply embedded structural distortions, including the persistent conflation of disciplines, a colonial and biomedical legacy, a research funding ecosystem that systematically privileges certain epistemologies over others and market-driven inequities. Ensuring pay parity for professionals and researchers in public health is a matter of social justice and a critical step towards realising diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in the field.