India's care economy is one of the country's biggest untapped opportunities. A recent paper by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council puts its economic value at nearly 15 to 17 per cent of the country’s GDP. Yet the people who hold this economy together, the women who look after our children, remain among the least recognised workers in the country.
The demographics make the case plainly. In 2025, around 24 per cent of India's population, about 350 million people, was below the age of 14, and roughly one in ten was aged 60 or above. By 2050, India is projected to have around 300 million children and 347 million senior citizens. Childcare, eldercare and long-term care for dependents will all be in demand at once.
Where there is demand, there are jobs. The PM-EAC estimates that India will need 31 to 38 million care workers by 2050. Globally, the International Labour Organisation projects that care workforce requirements could rise to 475 million by 2030, with nearly 70 per cent of these opportunities likely to go to women. Indian care workers can claim a meaningful share of them as care slowly gains traction in policy conversations. The Union Budget's emphasis on skilling 1.5 lakh care workers is a welcome signal, and care work is central to raising women's workforce participation, which is essential for Viksit Bharat.
Nowhere is the promise greater, or the preparedness gap wider, than in childcare.
A workforce that is essential but invisible
India's childcare workforce is largely informal and unskilled. Its backbone is the country's 1.35 million Anganwadi workers. Despite decades of experience, they are still treated as volunteers, paid minimum wages, and excluded from permanent government employment in most states. They also hold no formal certification as childcare workers. Skill and experience that have shaped generations of children simply don’t show up on paper.
From schemes to systems
In recent years, the conversation has shifted from isolated programmes to building a care ecosystem, an approach already visible in countries such as the Philippines and in Bogotá, Colombia. India has begun to move in the same direction. Sector skills councils have prepared detailed qualification packs for childcare roles. The Health Sector Skills Council (HSSC) has developed an early child development services pack spanning roles from child health worker to carepreneur. The Home Management and Caregiver Sector Skills Council offers four childcare qualifications, from child caretaker to play school facilitator cum caregiver. The Management and Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Council offers a preschool and daycare facilitator qualification.
Standards on paper, however, may not match classroom training. Hence, HSSC has moved fast to find training partners, running training-of-trainers programmes in 2025 and signing an MoU with Mobile Creches and the United Nations Development Programme to roll out training.
The partnership works because the skills are complementary. Mobile Creches brings its experience in childcare to mobilise trainees, deliver training and arrange on-the-job placements at childcare centres. HSSC brings qualification standards, trainer certification and independent assessment. The first batch of 25 trainees is about to graduate and, we hope, will soon join the workforce as skilled Child Health Workers.
The number is small. What matters is the model: sector skills councils, civil society, development partners and training institutions working together. It has also changed our own role. Mobile Creches is now not only a provider of trained workers but an employer.
Running this programme has left us with learnings and one big question. How do we scale it nationwide, and how do we ensure that employers value the training enough to pay a wage premium? Five steps would help.
Five steps to scale
First, build industry partnerships for skilling and recruitment. Training providers, sector skills councils and employers such as daycare chains, healthcare service providers, corporates and office management companies must work together to create real job pathways for trainees. This is the single most important lever for establishing a wage and skill premium. It can lift the perception of the childcare worker from a semi-skilled domestic worker equivalent to a trained professional who improves children's learning and nutrition outcomes.
Second, widen the skilling pathways. Short-term courses could add specialisations, such as child health worker with a focus on children with disabilities or on child nutrition. A childcare apprenticeship could be introduced under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme. Recognition of prior learning would let Anganwadi and informal workers with decades of experience earn certification. Long-term routes through Industrial Training Institutes, diplomas and certifications should follow.
Third, build international partnerships for joint certification. Government-to-government and business-to-business arrangements could harmonise childcare qualifications, so that Indian certification is recognised abroad. This would raise training quality and open overseas employment for certified workers. Childcare should also be mentioned in India's global labour mobility agreements.
Fourth, create a national registry of childcare workers and training providers. Each worker would carry a verifiable professional record, covering qualifications, training, assessments and experience, that stays with her across employers. The registry should also list recognised training and service providers. To avoid parallel systems, it can draw on existing platforms such as the Skill India Digital Hub, Poshan Tracker, e-Shram and DigiLocker.
Fifth, expand partnerships to deliver the curriculum. Sector skills councils can work with ITIs, private skilling providers and NGOs. The National Forum for Creches and Childcare Services (National FORCES), with over 280 NGO partners across major states, is a natural partner.
India's care economy will only be as strong as the workers who power it. By investing now in their skills, recognition and employment pathways, we can meet our own growing need for care, claim a fair share of the global opportunity, and give millions of women dignified, valued work.
The author is the executive director for policy and partnership at Mobile Creches.
