SHATAYU Dashboard Strengthens India’s Caregiver Network for Senior Citizens

India’s elderly care ecosystem is moving towards a more organised, technology-enabled model with the rollout of the SHATAYU Dashboard, a national platform designed to connect trained geriatric caregivers with senior citizens who require support. Launched by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment on 22 May 2026, SHATAYU stands for Senior Holistic Care Assistance and Training for Your Utility.

The dashboard is being managed by the National Institute of Social Defence, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. NISD is also responsible for training geriatric caregivers, making the platform a direct bridge between trained human resources and elderly citizens who need care services.

The core idea behind SHATAYU is simple and important: India needs a structured caregiver network for its ageing population. As families become smaller, migration increases and urban lifestyles change, many senior citizens require reliable assistance for daily living, mobility, companionship, basic health support and personal care. A verified digital dashboard of trained caregivers can help families and elderly citizens identify available support in their district or state.

SHATAYU allows trained geriatric caregivers to self-register on the platform. The Ministry has also allowed caregivers trained during 2023–24 and earlier years to register themselves. This step is aimed at strengthening the national database and ensuring that a larger pool of trained caregivers becomes visible to citizens across the country.

The platform has been designed to show the availability of geriatric caregivers across districts and states. This district-wise mapping is important because the need for elderly care is local and immediate. A senior citizen in one city or district needs access to caregivers nearby, rather than a general national list that may have limited practical value. By organising caregiver information geographically, SHATAYU can make elderly care more accessible and actionable.

The Ministry has also addressed concerns around technical glitches in the dashboard. According to the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the technical teams are monitoring entries and making regular interventions to streamline the data. Since the dashboard is built around self-registration, early-stage data corrections, duplicate entries, local concentration of caregivers and verification-related adjustments are expected parts of the platform’s stabilisation process.

The Ministry has urged citizens to rely on official information and avoid misleading social media posts about the dashboard. This clarification is important because digital welfare platforms can be misunderstood during their early rollout stage, especially when data entries are still being cleaned, verified and organised. The government has stated that the intent of SHATAYU is to empower end users through a self-registration mechanism and expand access to trained caregivers.

The district concentration of caregivers has also been explained by the Ministry. Since geriatric caregiver training depends on the location of training centres, many trainees may naturally come from nearby districts, towns or cities. This can result in higher numbers from certain locations during the initial phase. As training expands and more caregivers register from different regions, the dashboard’s geographic spread is expected to become wider.

SHATAYU is part of India’s broader move to create an age-responsive care economy. Elderly welfare can no longer be seen only through pensions, old-age homes or medical care. It now includes home-based support, community care, trained caregivers, assistive services, digital access, social inclusion and dignity in ageing. A caregiver dashboard can become a vital layer in this ecosystem.

The platform also has employment and skilling significance. Geriatric caregiving is an emerging service sector with rising demand. Training and registering caregivers can create livelihood opportunities, especially for youth, women and community-level workers. At the same time, it can improve the quality and safety of care available to senior citizens.

India’s ageing population makes such systems increasingly relevant. Senior citizens require a dependable support structure that combines family care, community support, trained service providers and government-backed facilitation. SHATAYU can help organise this space by making trained caregivers more visible and accessible.

The dashboard’s success will depend on continuous data cleaning, caregiver verification, wider training coverage, citizen awareness and coordination with local institutions. If these elements are strengthened, SHATAYU can become a practical national tool for elderly care, especially for families searching for trained assistance in their own district.

The launch and expansion of SHATAYU marks a meaningful step towards building a more inclusive care ecosystem for India’s senior citizens. It reflects a larger policy shift: elderly care is becoming organised, skilled, localised and digitally supported. With technical improvements underway and the caregiver database expanding, SHATAYU has the potential to become an important pillar of India’s senior citizen welfare architecture.

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Source: PIB

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