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NITI Aayog’s report proposes a comprehensive roadmap to professionalise India’s caregiving ecosystem and position the country as a global hub for skilled caregivers. It links caregiving with India’s ageing population, women’s economic participation, employment generation and inclusive growth.

India’s elderly population (60 ) is projected to rise from 149 million in 2022 to 347 million by 2050, while around 26.8 million people live with disabilities. At the same time, nearly 10% of Indians are family caregivers, most of whom are unpaid and untrained. The care economy therefore represents both a social necessity and an employment opportunity.

The care economy includes paid and unpaid work supporting health, well-being and daily living. In India, caregiving remains heavily gendered: 41% of women aged 15–59 participate in caregiving compared with 21.4% of men, while women spend around 140 minutes daily on caregiving compared with 74 minutes for men. Formalising the sector could therefore reduce women's unpaid care burden and improve female labour-force participation.

Major Challenges

India currently faces regulatory gaps, inadequate professional certification, shortage of specialised caregivers, weak social-security coverage and limited formal care infrastructure. Rural areas face additional shortages, while the absence of respite care and weak background-verification mechanisms affect both caregivers and care recipients.

NITI Aayog’s Way Forward

The report recommends a National Policy on Caregiving and a National Caregiver Council to regulate accreditation, certification, registration and grievance redressal. It also proposes NSQF-aligned training, specialised cadres for geriatric, dementia and palliative care, social-security coverage, care leave and respite-care services.

Technology can support a National Digital Caregiver Portal containing certified caregiver directories, background verification and multilingual training. India can also develop Government-to-Government mobility pathways with countries such as Japan, Germany, the UK and Australia to meet global caregiver shortages.

Core takeaway:Caregiving should be viewed not merely as welfare expenditure, but as an investment in human capital, women's empowerment, employment and inclusive growth.