India's Need for a Trained Elderly Caregiver Workforce

Senior citizens, meaning persons aged 60 years and above, numbered about 149 million in 2022 and are projected to reach 347 million by 2050, nearly 20.8% of the population. For most of India's history, the joint family absorbed this need. As nuclear families have spread, this informal safety net has weakened, and caregiving now falls mostly on untrained family members who learn through trial and error.

The constitutional basis for state action is clear. Article 41 (a Directive Principle of State Policy) directs the State to secure public assistance in old age and sickness. Article 21, the right to life, has been read by courts to include a dignified standard of living, which extends to elderly citizens needing care. The NITI Aayog's 2026 report, Reimagining Care: Strategies for Empowering Caregivers in Viksit Bharat@2047, is the first national policy document to frame caregiving as an economic activity, not only a welfare concern.

This caregiving push follows the same skilling logic already used for India's wider unregulated workforce. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) formally aligns the competencies of workers who learned skills informally to the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), a framework that organises skills into levels so they are recognised and comparable across sectors. Budget 2026-27 now extends this same NSQF alignment to caregiving, announcing training for 1.5 lakh caregivers, treating informal caregiving the same way PMKVY treats other unregulated trades: as a skill to be certified, not just practised.