The Diaspora Dilemma: The Unspoken Reality of NRI Families and Their Aging Parents

New data shows the generation of Indians aged 40-55 living abroad is silently bearing one of the heaviest caregiving burdens in the world.

NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- More than half of Indian professionals aged 40-55 living outside India are caught between ageing parents at home and their own families abroad. Yet, fewer than 1% of India's elderly have access to any organised care.

According to the Pew Research Center, 54% of adults in their 40s have a living parent aged 65 or older while simultaneously raising or supporting their own children, the classic 'sandwich generation' bind. For Indian diaspora families, the distance transforms that bind into a daily crisis of helplessness.
The National Alliance for Caregiving (AARP, 2025) found that 56% of adult caregivers say the role actively harms their own mental health, while 41% reported feeling lonely in their roles as caregivers.

Asheesh Gupta, an IIT, IIM and McKinsey alum, and Founder & CEO, Samarth Elder Care which has supported tens of thousands of seniors across hundreds of Indian cities on behalf of the Indian diaspora living in 33+ countries says, “These families don't need sympathy, they need a layer of proper, thought-through and stress-tested systems. Samarth exists to be the professional, trusted presence on the ground, that geography has stolen from them. We have created such a system over the last 10 years, which provides professional care management covering medical coordination, emergency response, concierge services, and companionship.”, he adds.

To compound the worries of the NRI children, India's Longitudinal Ageing Study (LASI), the largest ageing study in the world, led jointly by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and India's International Institute for Population Sciences, have released the following insights:
1. Elderly parents left behind by migrant children show significantly higher rates of functional disability than those living with family.
2. Elderly women in this group face measurably higher depression and limitation in daily activities.
3. While 13.1% of adult children send money home, they continue to suffer from the guilt of not being there.

Since COVID, the number of NRI families accessing Samarth’s professional services to support ageing-at-home for parents has grown exponentially, as references, robust systems, and a unique combination of tech-and-touch has helped build a bridge of trust for Samarth for these families thousands of miles away.

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, established by Tata Trusts. 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.

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