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Every economy depends on care. It allows parents to go to work, supports older people and persons with disabilities, and helps families manage periods of illness or dependency. It takes place in homes, hospitals, childcare centres and communities. Increasingly, it is also being delivered through digital platforms, telehealth and remote monitoring. Yet care is still too often treated as a private household responsibility or a social expenditure, rather than as infrastructure that enables economies to function.
This difference matters across BRICS. These nations together account for approximately 49.5% of the world’s population and 40% of global GDP, and have much to gain from formalising a care economy that supports workforce participation and growth.
Around 2.3 billion people worldwide are projected to need care by 2030. Ageing population, urbanisation, migration, smaller households and changing family structures are increasing demand for childcare, eldercare, disability support and other services.
And when affordable and reliable care is unavailable, the responsibility falls on households, with women bearing a disproportionate share. Globally, 708 million working-age women are outside the labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared with 40 million men. Women also perform more than three-quarters of unpaid care work and account for around two-thirds of paid care workers. But many paid care workers, particularly domestic and personal care workers, remain in low-paid or informal employment with limited access to social protection.
The economic value of this work is substantial, even when it is missing from conventional measures of economic activity. An estimated 16.4 billion hours are spent on unpaid care every day, equivalent to roughly 2 billion people working for eight hours without pay. When valued at an hourly minimum wage, unpaid care has been estimated at around 9% of global GDP. These estimates show the scale of economically valuable work taking place outside market transactions and the importance of making it visible in policy and planning.
A 2024 Time Use Survey found that women participating in unpaid domestic services spent an average of 289 minutes a day on these activities, compared with 88 minutes for men. Furthermore, women spent 137 minutes a day undertaking unpaid caregiving, compared with 75 minutes for men. A 2026 study using this time-use data estimated the value of unpaid own-use production of services at INR 56 trillion, or around 18% of nominal GDP. Women accounted for 78.2% of that value.
Demand for formal care services is set to grow. India’s population aged 60 and above is projected to rise from 149 million in 2022 to 347 million by 2050, when it will represent 20.8% of the population. The country’s care services market is forecast to grow from USD 29.62 billion in 2023 to USD 72.31 billion by 2030. This creates an opportunity to build a skilled care workforce and formalise care occupations.
The same opportunity extends across BRICS. Countries face different care pressures, from large unpaid-care burdens and uneven access to childcare to rapidly ageing populations and shortages of trained workers. Their responses will therefore need to differ. What remains consistent is the economic link: An inadequate care ecosystem will restrict participation in paid work, while investment in care can expand the workforce and create employment within the care sector itself. Investment in childcare and long-term care could generate close to 299 million jobs worldwide by 2035.
Realising this potential requires more than constructing facilities. Care infrastructure includes the people who deliver care, the standards that shape service quality, the financing required to sustain provision and the digital systems that connect people with support. It ranges from crèches, community eldercare centres and workplace-supported services to telehealth, remote monitoring, verified caregiver platforms and technology-assisted care. Stronger systems also require clear institutional responsibility, reliable data and delivery models.
The proposed BRICS VALUES framework sets out six pillars for positioning care as economic infrastructure: It includes:
The framework also looks beyond government and employer action. It highlights the role of cooperatives, self-help groups and women-led businesses in expanding services, training workers and creating locally grounded models of care.
BRICS cooperation can help countries identify what works, understand the conditions required for success and adapt useful approaches to their own legislative, demographic and institutional contexts.
Care keeps economies and households running, yet it often goes unseen and unsupported. Treating it as essential infrastructure can change that. With the right investment in services, workers and systems, countries can widen workforce participation, create better jobs and businesses, and strengthen economic resilience.
India and Japan have evolved their relationship into a strong, strategic partnership focused on shared growth and prosperity. This alliance is built on a foundation of economic collaboration, cultural resonance, spiritual connection, and centuries-old civilisational ties. Together, the two nations have made significant strides in navigating the challenges of globalisation and technological change, further deepening their mutual bond.
