Conventionally, India and Israel are viewed as strategic partners, a relationship built on traditional pillars of defence cooperation, technology transfer, and agricultural innovation. But there is another very important, yet little visible dimension that transcends the traditional framework and covers the demographics and security uncertainties that reshape state priorities in both the countries: care economy. Because of the broader demographic realities of Israel, the care economy has emerged as a quiet but strategically consequential dimension in the evolving India-Israel relations.

As ageing accelerates nationally, recent empirical studies emphasise on the growing structural importance of the care economy. The study conducted by Taub Centre for Social Policy Studies (2024) in Israel shows that the population aged 75 and up has grown on average by about 9,000 individuals per year. The same study also projected that by 2040 it is expected that there will be an annual increase of 20,000-30,000 people aged 75 and older. Another report by Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute (2025) reiterates that 13% of Israel’s population is aged 65 or older, compared to 11% a decade ago and this figure is projected to rise to at least 14% by 2040, signalling a significant escalation in long-term care demand. These studies along with other government data from Israel's health ministry confirms that the oldest age groups require more intensive and sustained care support.

This demographic shift is part of a broader global pattern. The Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) held in 2025 also underscored the need to care for the economy in the background of pandemics, demographic change, population age, and social impacts of climate change. As estimated by WSSD2, by 2030 an estimated 2.3 billion people are expected to need care and hence the care work (both paid and unpaid) will become crucial component of national economy and social resilience. Echoing the same sentiment, OECD also identified Long-Term-Care (LTC) as essential to the pressing challenge of an ageing population amongst the countries, and predicted a sharp increase in LTC employment over the next decade.

In this context, Israel’s demographic shift towards ageing population and its conflict zone proximity has made foreign caregivers indispensable to complex healthcare needs of its elderly population. Because of traditional preference for home-based long-term care of elderly people, care-giving labour has emerged more like a civilian resilience architecture in Israel, rather than a peripheral welfare service. It has proved relevant in reducing its healthcare pressure, especially during the periods of security escalations. Large number of Indian populations from the states of Gujarat, Kerala and some northeastern states are employed in caregiving work in Israel. 

Caregiving In Volatile Environments

Caregiving significantly alleviates the strain on the public infrastructures and hospitals during the extended periods of war, insecurity and pandemic. The trained and compassionate in-home caregivers hold the domestic frontlines, stabilizing the family units, and mitigating the psychological stress. Thus, the care labour complements the process of national resilience structure almost like a civilian form of conscription; understated but continuously sustained. During the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent security escalations, Israel’s Ministry of Health has repeatedly emphasized on home-based care as a critical mechanism for dependent older adults. It has also been recognized as an effective way to decongest hospitals and ensure continuity of care for vulnerable populations. Aligned to the policy of home-based care, Israeli Ministry of Health’s “Return Home Model” project is focussed on providing quality of care to the older adults and supporting the caregivers, while putting minimum pressure on the public health care infrastructure.

In this background, labour diplomacy is identified as an important facet while recalibrating India-Israel relations. For quite some time now Israel has been a new preferred work destination for Indians who traditionally were more attracted to the US and other European countries. Large number of caregivers from India prefer to work in Israel due to significantly higher wages than domestic workers in most Gulf states along with regulated work hours and access to healthcare and legal recourse mechanisms. As per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) data, 6,774 Indians entered Israel under the India-Israel bilateral framework agreement as of July 1, 2025. Out of these 6,774 Indian nationals were employed in the construction sector and 44 Indian nationals employed as caregivers, based on demand raised by the Israeli side. Apart from this, around 7000 Indian nationals were also recruited through private channels as caregivers in Israel. This is a contrasting trend when compared to India's Gulf labour corridor that hosts over nine million Indian workers.  Often entering the Gulf through informal or semi formal channels, the labour is often exposed to the risks of monetary and contractual frauds, leaving them vulnerable with limited state protection.

The Indian government’s response to Israel’s situation underscores the evolution in foreign policy in relations to countries where providing overseas labour is not merely a remittance-generating activity but is also a marker of state responsibility and international credibility. While government-to-government recruitment pathways also reduce the risks involved in informal migration, the regulated pathways ensure government accountability and protection for the workers. This arrangement also institutionalises the skills certification and welfare oversight in India-Israel cooperation. Because of this bilateral understanding, workers’ safety and contract enforcement no longer remain routine administrative concerns, but they are the foundations of bilateral trust between the two countries. 

For example, the recent recruitment drive for thousands of home-based caregiver positions in Israel, promoted by the Labour, Employment, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department of the Mizoram state government in northeastern India, was a striking example of institutionalised labour diplomacy. The advertisement clearly outlined the eligibility criteria, certification requirements and employment terms.  Such initiatives would prove essential for state accountability and worker protection in the international political and legal arena.

The deployment of international labour in conflict sensitive zones inevitably puts them in the realm of the host country’s strategic calculus, placing labour mobility squarely into diplomacy.

Politically Sensitive Strategic Asset 

Over the decades, Gulf markets have relied on informal labour from India and in times of escalated tensions in Yemen, Libya, and Sudan etc, tested India’s evacuation and protection capabilities (Operation Rahat in 2015 and Operation Kaveri in 2023 to mention a few). However, despite such strong presence from construction workers in the Gulf to domestic workers in West Asian households, there have been repeated instances that have brought to fore the cost of informal recruitment and weak institutional oversight. 

The India–Israel institutionalised care corridor offers an opportunity of transparent governance, positioning Israel not merely as a work destination, but as a laboratory for India’s evolving labour diplomacy. The care economy offers more dependable and sustained grounds for bilateral relations as it is woven in the fabric of Israeli society. On the other hand, traditional defence relations which, though robust, are more transactional than continuous in nature. The traditional cooperation based on defence and technology is susceptible to the evolving strategic alignments and fluid international system. There is a distinctive form of interdependence created between the two countries - while Israeli households depend on Indian caregivers for high-value support in their daily lives, Indian families rely on stable income earned from Israel. The interdependence is inherently people centric, politically sensitive and not asymmetric in nature. The institutionalisation of previously informal caregiving work through expanded government-to-government pathways has exposed it to diplomatic vulnerability. Thus, steps like pre-negotiated crisis protocols and language training programs for Indian caregivers in Israel could make caregiving not just a peripheral dimension but redefine India–Israel relations.

As contemporary geopolitics transcends traditional military power and intensifies over human and demographic advantages, the care economy has an emerging and a very special role to play. If both India and Israel recognise caregiving as a durable strategic asset, it would contribute in stable and high-value cooperation between the two countries. In this emerging geopolitical landscape, caregiving is no longer peripheral; it is hardcore strategic.

(The writer is an Assistant Professor (International Relations) in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT), Noida, India. Views expressed are personal. She can be reached at ilacps@gmail.com)