Why Hiring A Caregiver Is So Hard

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I was six years old when Baghban came out.

I don't remember every scene, but I do remember watching it with my parents, who seemed terrified that they'd see a similar fate.

Most of us would like to think that could never happen to our own families.

But growing old without enough support doesn't always happen because children don't care.

Sometimes they live in another city. Sometimes they're juggling demanding jobs and young children of their own. Sometimes, despite their best intentions, they just cannot be there around the clock.

That's where professional caregivers come in.

India's senior care industry is already worth over seven billion dollars, and policymakers expect it to grow rapidly as the country's population ages.

But despite that growth, finding a reliable caregiver remains difficult.

When Lopamudra Ghatak's father developed dementia after a stroke, she hired attendants through agencies in Kolkata while she lived in Noida.

The experience left her frustrated.

"They'd call at 9:15 when their shift started at 9, saying they couldn't make it," she told me. She and her mother also found themselves explaining basic dementia care to the attendants, like why arguing with patients often makes things worse.

Her experience isn't unusual.

When I spoke to Pankaj Mehrotra, founder of Elderly Care India, he pointed to a bigger problem.

"The first challenge is unregulated service providers," he said. "There is no regulation, no registration, no monitoring and no redressal process."

That has real consequences for families.

Anyone can advertise themselves as a caregiver. There is no universally recognised qualification, no single standard for training, and little consistency in how agencies verify workers. Prices can vary dramatically from one provider to another. If an attendant doesn't show up, families generally have no reliable replacement or formal grievance mechanism.

The situation isn't easy for caregivers either.

I also spoke to Rita, a 56-year-old caregiver who previously worked as a nanny.

She described long shifts, physically demanding work and modest pay. "Sometimes the beds I get hurt my back. The food is subpar," she said.

Still, she prefers caring for elderly people to looking after children because, as she put it, there's less running around.

Rita did receive some basic training through her agency, and there do exist certification programmes for caregivers.

But training alone isn’t enough.

Many workers leave the profession because the work is demanding, career progression is limited and working conditions vary widely from one household to another.

And that’s the paradox.

India's elder-care industry is expanding rapidly. But the profession itself is still catching up.

In this week's episode of The Signal Brief, I explore why caring for India's elderly has become one of the country's biggest workforce challenges, what families should know before hiring a caregiver, and what it will take to build a system worthy of the millions of Indians who will soon depend on it.

You can find The Signal Brief on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Thank you once again for listening and supporting us. We’d love to hear from you; write to us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram or X at @thesignaldotco.

Best,
Kudrat
on behalf of The Core

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