India’s care economy is projected to emerge as one of the country’s largest employment engines, with the potential to generate over 60 million jobs and reach a market size of $500 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Primus Partners.
Currently employing an estimated 36 million workers, the care sector remains one of India’s most under-recognised yet high-potential segments of the economy. The report highlights that rising demand for childcare, eldercare, disability support, rehabilitation, mental health services, wellness, and long-term care is already reshaping the labour market, even as the sector continues to operate largely outside formal economic planning.
Women form the backbone of India’s care workforce, yet a significant portion of care work remains informal and unprotected. Experts emphasise that formalisation, fair wages, and access to social security are essential to recognising care work as productive economic activity and building a more equitable care ecosystem.
Unlike capital-intensive industries, care services are labour-intensive, locally delivered, and largely resilient to automation. This positions the sector as a powerful source of employment across urban centres as well as Tier 2, Tier 3, peri-urban, and rural regions. The report underscores that care services represent essential economic infrastructure that has remained largely invisible in policy discourse.
To illustrate the sector’s breadth, the study maps 13 paid care personas across a skill and formality framework. These range from entry-level roles such as domestic helpers, elder sitters, and beauty assistants, to semi-skilled roles including childcare assistants, rehabilitation aides, senior living staff, and special-needs caregivers. Skilled roles such as certified nursing assistants, counsellors, and palliative care workers also form a critical part of the ecosystem.
The analysis reveals that a large share of India’s care workforce remains trapped in low-wage informality despite performing skilled and economically essential functions. The report argues that structured skilling, certification pathways, and formal employment frameworks could enable career progression, income stability, and greater dignity of work for millions of caregivers.
Experts note that the care economy is no longer a peripheral social issue but a growing pillar of employment and economic value. Formalising and upskilling caregivers, they say, could unlock productivity gains, improve service quality, and establish a sustainable growth pathway that aligns social welfare with economic development.
