India's Care Economy: Formalising the Unpaid Caregiving Workforce

Gist The Union Budget 2026-27 has initiated the formalisation of India's care economy by announcing the training of caregivers under the national skilling framework, moving away from relying solely on informal, family-based care. This aligns with a recent NITI Aayog report that shifts the policy lens on caregiving from unrecognised domestic welfare work to a crucial economic activity. For civil services aspirants, this marks a fundamental shift in human capital management, highlighting the intersection of demographic aging, gender disparities in unpaid labor, and the creation of a structured geriatric care ecosystem. Background Historically, India relied on the joint family system as an informal social security net for long-term elderly care. As society shifted towards micro-family units, this burden fell predominantly on women, who operate as untrained and unpaid caregivers managing complex medical emergencies through trial and error. The National Skills Qualifications Framework NSQF is a national quality assurance framework that organizes qualifications according to levels of knowledge, skills, and aptitude, ensuring standardized training outcomes. Before this recent policy push, elderly care was largely decentralized, with marginal state-level interventions; the new…