NITI Aayog released the report Reimagining Care: Strategies for Empowering Caregivers in Viksit Bharat@2047 in New Delhi, laying out a detailed plan to build an organised, professional and future-ready caregiving ecosystem. The report recommends a National Policy on Caregiving (NPC) and the creation of a National Caregiver Council (NCC) to bring regulation, training, accreditation and quality standards under one roof. It also proposes a National Caregiver Registry to support professional growth and institutional backing, as India’s elderly population is set to more than double by 2050.
About the Report and Its Release
The report was released on 5 August 2026 at NITI Aayog headquarters in New Delhi by Ashok Kumar Lahiri, Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, in the presence of Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Member, and Nidhi Chhibber, CEO of NITI Aayog. It was prepared by the Social Justice and Empowerment Division of NITI Aayog after extensive stakeholder consultations, international benchmarking, surveys and field visits.
Officials from central ministries such as the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare attended the launch. Representatives of United Nations agencies, including UNFPA, WHO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the ILO, were also present.
NITI Aayog is the National Institution for Transforming India, the government’s apex policy think tank. It was established on 1 January 2015 through a Cabinet resolution, replacing the Planning Commission. The Prime Minister serves as its Chairperson, and it functions as a non-constitutional, non-statutory body promoting cooperative federalism.
Understanding the Caregiving Ecosystem
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) definition used in the report, caregivers are people who provide physical, emotional and social support to those unable to perform daily activities independently because of age, chronic illness or disability. Caregiving in India works through two channels: informal and formal.
Informal caregivers are family members, relatives, friends and community volunteers who generally offer unpaid support. They remain the backbone of long-term care in India. Formal caregivers are trained professionals, such as personal care aides, home health aides and geriatric assistants, who provide paid care in homes, hospitals, rehabilitation centres and old age homes.
India’s care services market was worth around $29.62 billion in 2023. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.76 per cent and reach about $72.31 billion by 2030. This rapid growth signals that caregiving is turning into a major source of employment and economic activity.
Analogy · A Two-Track Care Highway Expand analogy
Think of India’s care system as a highway with two lanes. The informal lane is like a well-worn village road, used by most people but with no speed limits, signage or maintenance. The formal lane is a newer expressway, smoother but with very few drivers trained to use it. The report wants to build proper signage, traffic rules and trained drivers for both lanes, so the entire highway can handle the heavy traffic of an ageing India.
Why the Demand for Care Is Rising
India is going through a rapid demographic transition. According to the India Ageing Report 2023, the elderly population, people aged 60 years and above, stood at about 149 million in 2022, roughly 10.5 per cent of the population. This is projected to climb to 194 million by 2031 and 347 million by 2050, when older persons will make up 20.8 per cent of all Indians.
Changing Family Structures
The traditional joint family, which once absorbed most caregiving duties, is shrinking. Urbanisation, the migration of young people from villages to cities and the growing shift to nuclear families mean fewer relatives are available at home to care for elders. At the same time, more women are joining the workforce, which reduces the pool of unpaid family caregivers.
Growing Disability and Chronic Care Needs
Around 26.8 million persons with disabilities, about 2.21 per cent of India’s population, depend on family members or professionals for daily support. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which replaced the earlier Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995, recognises 21 categories of disabilities, creating a wide and diverse demand for specialised care. The rising burden of chronic and terminal illnesses also fuels the need for long-term and palliative care.
Women and the Unpaid Care Burden
India’s unpaid care economy rests heavily on women. According to the Time Use Survey, women spend about 299 minutes per day on unpaid domestic and caregiving work, compared with only 97 minutes for men. This unequal load limits women’s participation in paid jobs, education and entrepreneurship, a gap the report seeks to address through formalising the sector.
Key Recommendations of the Report
The report organises its suggestions around policy, professional recognition, workforce development, global cooperation, social security and family and community-based care. Its central proposals are outlined below.
National Policy on Caregiving (NPC)
The report calls for the notification of a comprehensive National Policy on Caregiving to standardise and unify the country’s fragmented certifications, accreditations and schemes. The policy would formally recognise caregiving as a skilled and allied profession with defined roles, fair wages, job security and clear career progression. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment (DoSJE) is suggested as the nodal department to anchor the policy and coordinate implementation across ministries and states.
National Caregiver Council (NCC)
A proposed National Caregiver Council (NCC) would act as the apex institution responsible for regulating, standardising and professionalising caregiving services nationwide. Its duties would include accrediting caregiver training programmes, empanelling national, state and private training institutions, setting minimum service standards and developing a continuous professional development framework. The council would also design language and cultural competency courses so caregivers can work across states and in foreign countries.
National Caregiving Qualification Framework
To bring uniformity to training, the report proposes a National Caregiving Qualification Framework covering education, training, accreditation and certification. Caregiver courses currently differ widely in duration, curriculum and quality. The framework would align Indian qualifications with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and introduce the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) mechanism, which certifies the skills of experienced informal caregivers so they can move into the formal workforce.
National Caregiver Registry and Digital Portal
The report recommends a National Caregiver Registry maintained by the NCC to register, deregister or blacklist caregivers and service providers. A companion National Portal for Caregivers and Care Seekers would connect trained caregivers with families looking for care. The registry would also support workforce planning by giving policymakers a clear picture of how many trained caregivers exist and where they are located.
Social Security and Entrepreneurship Support
Caregivers should be recognised as part of the unorganised workforce so they can access social security benefits, health insurance and legal protection, the report argues. It also suggests care leave for employees supporting elderly parents, community-based respite centres and linking families with Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the care space could register for government financial products such as MUDRA loans to scale up their services.
Global Mobility and India as a Care Hub
The world is expected to face a shortage of around 11 million health and care workers by 2030, according to projections cited in the report. The OECD group of developed countries is estimated to need 13.5 million additional care workers by 2040. The report sees this as a chance for India to emerge as a trusted global supplier of trained caregivers. It recommends strengthening government-to-government arrangements, building on existing partnerships such as the India-Germany Triple Win programme, and training caregivers in foreign languages and cultural awareness for overseas placement.
Gaps the Report Identifies in the Current System
The report describes India’s current caregiving ecosystem as nascent and fragmented. Several weaknesses stand out.
India has no single apex statutory authority dedicated to caregiving, so policies remain scattered across health, social justice, labour and skill development departments. This causes duplication, gaps and weak coordination. Training standards are also uneven, with courses differing in length, curriculum and certification, and Indian qualifications often lack international recognition.
Many caregivers face low wages, weak social security, poor working conditions and even workplace exploitation. Specialised training for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia is scarce, which adds to caregiver burnout and high workforce turnover. Rural-to-urban migration further weakens informal care networks, leaving elderly parents without traditional family support.
Existing Government Efforts on Elderly Care
India already has several programmes addressing elderly welfare. The National Policy for Older Persons (1999) and the National Policy on Senior Citizens (2011) set the broad policy direction. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 gives legal backing to elderly care. The National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE) focuses on geriatric health services.
The government has also launched digital tools such as the SHATAYU Dashboard for senior care and the JEEVAN application, a single-window mobile app for senior citizens. States have experimented too: Karnataka runs a carers’ allowance scheme for parents of children with severe disabilities, and Kerala supports community care through its Kudumbashree K for Care project. The report wants such scattered initiatives scaled up and unified under one national framework.
Why This Report Matters
Caregiving sits at the crossroads of several national priorities. A professional care economy can generate large numbers of jobs, especially for women and semi-skilled workers. Reducing the burden of unpaid care would allow more women to join formal employment and entrepreneurship, boosting India’s female labour force participation.
The report also connects caregiving to India’s cultural strengths. Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Member of NITI Aayog, noted that Seva and Samvedana (service and compassion) have always been at the heart of India’s civilisational ethos. A robust caregiving ecosystem, he argued, would strengthen social inclusion, empower communities and create quality livelihoods. Ashok Kumar Lahiri described caregiving as both a reflection of Indian values and a strategic opportunity to reinforce the country’s soft power.
Building a formal care sector is also central to the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047, the government’s blueprint for making India a developed nation by the centenary of independence. A developed India, the report stresses, must build systems that guarantee accessible, affordable and compassionate care for its elderly, persons with disabilities and chronically ill citizens.
The Way Forward
The roadmap envisions a multi-ministry effort rather than a single department’s project. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment would anchor the policy, while the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) would play supporting roles.
State governments, the Quality Council of India, NCERT, UGC, AICTE, healthcare institutions, corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners and civil society organisations are all expected to contribute. The report also aligns with the government’s announced plans to train 150,000 caregivers in the coming year through NSQF-aligned courses and to build a National Caregiver Training Pathway using standards set by the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET).
Realising this vision will require sustained public investment and a long-term commitment. The next steps involve translating these recommendations into an official national policy, establishing the National Caregiver Council and rolling out the qualification framework. If implemented well, the plan could transform caregiving from an underpaid, invisible job into a career of choice, dignity and national pride.
Key Takeaways
- NITI Aayog released the report Reimagining Care: Strategies for Empowering Caregivers in Viksit Bharat@2047 on 5 August 2026, prepared by its Social Justice and Empowerment Division.
- The report recommends a National Policy on Caregiving (NPC) and a National Caregiver Council (NCC) to regulate training, accreditation, certification and quality standards.
- It proposes a National Caregiver Registry and a National Portal for Caregivers and Care Seekers to connect trained caregivers with families and support workforce planning.
- India’s elderly population is projected to rise from 149 million in 2022 (10.5 per cent) to 347 million by 2050 (20.8 per cent), according to the India Ageing Report 2023.
- India’s care services market is expected to grow from $29.62 billion in 2023 to $72.31 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 13.76 per cent.
- The global shortage of about 11 million health and care workers by 2030 offers India an opportunity to become a global hub for skilled caregivers.
