Beyond Dollars: Indians in the USA Say That The Cost of Caring for Ageing Parents in India are Unseen and Immeasurable

Touching Hearts. Enriching Lives.

A flight home may take four hours or twenty. The anxiety is the same. A new report maps the non-monetary cost to NRI families caring for parents in India.

NEW DELHI, DELHI, INDIA, July 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Caring for ageing parents from abroad comes at a cost you can’t put a number on. Samarth Elder Care compiled existing research to map out what that distance actually costs.

What NRIs worry about depends on where they live. In the US, an H-1B visa is tied to one employer, and a trip home doesn’t guarantee a smooth return. In the Back to India NRI Community Survey, 68 of every 100 H-1B holders and 43 of every 100 NRIs overall said visa uncertainty gets in the way of caregiving.
In the Gulf countries, residency is tied to the job. Extended leave can mean losing their job and home. In the UK, Australia, and Singapore, full-time jobs, young children, and a parent far away are top concerns.

74 out of every 100 NRIs said being closer to ageing parents was their biggest reason to consider moving back.
The other worry hinges on where their parents live. Nearly one in three elderly Indians live with an ongoing health condition, per the India Ageing Report released by UNFPA. Samarth’s own data suggests that they have received an emergency handling request of roughly 1/day in just the past year. India’s National Health Mission targets a 20-minute ambulance response in cities. Help on the ground doesn’t move that fast in practice. This delay can decide the outcome of a stroke or heart attack.

To add to their worries, the care available may not be where their parents live. Organised senior care remains clustered in a handful of big cities, while Tier 2 and 3 cities have the fastest-growing need, per industry estimates from the Association of Senior Living India.
The worry resulting from an inherent trust deficit. Finding a trusted provider for day-to-day elder care has become its own challenge for NRI families, one that The Economic Times and The Times of India have recently featured, examining what real, reliable elder care looks like and how families abroad can identify it.

“I built Samarth because I couldn’t find the type of care my parents needed in Dehradun. I know what it feels like to lose sleep at night and peace of mind during the day over their well-being. These families deserve rigour, not just reassurance,” Asheesh Gupta added. “Our job is to be the trusted professional and reliable bridge between the families, parents and care.

About Samarth Elder Care
Samarth Elder Care is India’s leading professional eldercare company, helping older adults live with dignity and independence while giving their families, wherever in the world they may be, the assurance of high-quality care. Founded in 2016 by alumni of IIT, IIM, Cambridge, Yale and McKinsey, Samarth operates across 350+ cities in India, serves families in 33+ countries, and is backed by Social Alpha. Its services span in-home care with a dedicated Care Manager, community and wellbeing programmes, and specialist clinical care through the Samarth Clinic for Healthy Ageing.

When a family cannot be there, Samarth is.

Sources
Back to India NRI Community Survey. NRI Community Survey Report. BackToIndia.com. Sourced from: https://backtoindia.com/survey/
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) India. (2023). Caring for Our Elders: Institutional Responses – India Ageing Report 2023. Sourced from: https://india.unfpa.org/en/publications/caring-our-elders-institutional-responses-india-ageing-report-2023
Association of Senior Living India (ASLI). Industry estimates on senior care demand in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, as reported in Outlook Money, “India’s Elderly Care Market Is Set to Boom in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities, Say Experts.” Sourced from: https://www.outlookmoney.com/retirement/spend/senior-living/indias-elderly-care-market-is-set-to-boom-in-tier-2-and-tier-3-cities-say-experts

Chitralekha Samaddar Sen
Samarth Elder Care
+91 87006 90186
media@samarth.community
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