New Delhi: Odisha capital Bhubaneswar is among the safest cities in the country for women.
The other cities where women are least scared about their safety are Kohima, Visakhapatnam, Aizawl, Gangtok, Itanagar and Mumbai, according to the National Annual Report & Index on Women’s Safety (NARI) 2025.
At the other end of the spectrum, Patna, Jaipur, Faridabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Srinagar and Ranchi have been ranked the lowest.
The nationwide index, released on Thursday, is based on a survey of 12,770 women across 31 cities.
The survey put the national safety score at 65 per cent, categorising cities as ‘much above,’ ‘above’, ‘at’, ‘below’ or ‘much below’ this benchmark.
“Kohima, Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Aizawl, Gangtok, Itanagar, Mumbai lead national safety rankings, often correlating with higher gender equity, infrastructure, policing, or civic participation while Ranchi, Srinagar, Kolkata, Delhi, Faridabad, Patna and Jaipur scored lowest, correlating with poorer infrastructure, patriarchal norms, or weaker institutional responsiveness,” the report said.
The safer cities were associated with stronger gender equity, civic participation, policing and women-friendly infrastructure, while cities like Patna and Jaipur had weak institutional responsiveness, patriarchal norms and gaps in urban infrastructure.
As high as 40% of women in India’s urban areas feel “not so safe” or “unsafe.”
Of them, 7% of women said they faced harassment in 2024, with those aged 18-24 highest at risk.
This represents 100 times the figure of reported cases of crime against women according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of 2022.
Among modes of harassment were staring, catcalling, lewd comments, and touching, on the streets. The blame was put on inadequate infrastructure, poor lighting and inefficient public transport.
NARI has been conceived by The NorthCap University and Jindal Global Law School, and is published by the Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA).