Evolution of concept and practice of health care in India can be traced back to the Vedic age. It was epitomised in Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Manu’s Codes of Health in the pre-Christian era. Health practices in India, like all other countries of the world, were integrated with the entire medical care system. In fact, in the absence of clear understanding of the causes of diseases, the emphasis was always on maintenance of health and prevention of ill health. The idea about prevention and control was actually crystallised following the discovery of microbes as the causative agents of certain diseases. This led to the clarification of the mode of transmission, host susceptibility and resistance towards the end of the 19th century.

The first seed of public health administration in India was sown in 1859, when Royal Commission was appointed by the then British Government to look into the causes of high morbidity and mortality among both army and civil populations. This Commission recommended appointment of Sanitary Commissioner in each province. Finally, health services was formed in India between 1896 and 1907. This gave further impetus to develop research laboratories and establishment of Indian Research Fund Association.

A few other landmarks in the development of public health services in India were:

1. The recommendation of the Govt. of India in 1912 to appoint health officer in each district and municipality. This necessitated the arrangement of training in public health in India and its multidisciplinary status. Thus necessity of public health was accepted.
2. A special postgraduate diploma course, namely Diploma in Public Health (DPH) was started at the School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta in 1920, the year of starting the school.
3. Establishment of a full-fledged institutes of public health- All India Institute of Hygiene and Public health, Calcutta, under the magnificent grant of the Rockefeller Foundation of New York, to train medical graduates and various other categories of health personnel.
4. Establishment of health survey and development committee by the Govt. of India, popularly known as the Bhore Committee, to prepare a plan for entire health services in India.
5. Acceptance  of the recommendation of the committee to introduce primary and  subsidiary health centres  all over India  as the most practical way of providing rural health services in India
6. The next important step was to appoint an Environmental Sanitation  Committee, under the chairmanship of  Dr.B.C.Dasgupta, Director of Health Services, Govt of West Bengal, in 1952.
7. Establishment of a Central Committee for control and eradication of Cholera and smallpox, under the auspices of the Indian Council of Medical Research in 1958

In the context of historical development of public health in India, the need for a national forum of public health workers on all India basis was strongly felt, not only for academic discussion on public health and orient the health functionaries about the new developments, but also to suggest measures for improvement of health services through the lessons learnt from sharing of experiences. The concept of such an association was first mooted out at the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta, in 1935. But most of the health staff being under government or municipalities, permission of Government was necessary to create such an association. This permission was denied until the Independence. So, the Institute had to remain satisfied with establishment of its Alumni association only. After 1948, Dr. Ganguly and Dr. S.C. Seal (Organizing Secretary) renewed the movement and finally the INDIAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION was formed. Its first meeting was inaugurated, on 29th September 1956, by the Union Health Minister Smt. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, in the presence of large number of national and international dignitaries in the field of public health.  The leaders of public Health at that time, who paved the way of its success were Dr.B.C.Roy, Chief Minister of West Bengal, Lt.Col. C.K. Lakshmanan , Director, All India Institute of Hygiene  and Public Health, Dr. K.C.K.E. Raja, Director General of Health Services, New Delhi, Dr. B.C.Dasgupta, Director of Health Services, West Bengal and  Mr. T.Lakshminarayanan  of Madras  and many others. Thereafter, the contributions of other reputed public health experts, like late Dr K N Rao, Prof I C Tiwary, Prof S M Marwah, Prof N.S.Deodhar, Prof G. Anjeynelu Dr Mahendra.Dutta , Dr. K.K.Dutta, Dr. P.K.Dutta, Prof P.V.Sathey & many others for nurturing the association can never be overstated; so was the untiring organisational effort of Dr. P.N.Khanna & Dr S P Mukhopadhyay, as Secretary General of the association until the recent past.

Eventually, a memorandum of the association was prepared and the association was duly registered. During last four decades, the association had regularly organized conferences, seminars, CME etc for its members, other professional organisations and public health personnel and also significantly contributed its expertise and assistance to the Govt. of India and State Governments for planning, implementation and evaluation of various public health programmes and control of emergencies. Recent involvement of the association in National Rural Health Mission is not worthy.