This city is India’s most gender-inclusive city for women

Bengaluru edged out Chennai as India’s top city for women, according to the third edition of the ‘Top Cities for Women in India’ (TCWI) report released by workplace culture consulting firm, The Avtar Group.

The top 10 cities for women comprise besides the top two, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gurugram and Coimbatore.

Sixteen cities in South India ranked among the top 25 for women, marking the region as the most gender-inclusive in the country.


A total of 120 cities across India were considered for the study and ranked based on an overall ‘City Inclusion Score’ assigned to every city, inferred from Avtar’s research and existing governmental data. The City Inclusion Score (CIS) is derived from three pillars – Social Inclusion Score (SIS), Industrial Inclusion Score (IIS) and Citizen Experience Score (CES).

The Social Inclusion Score is a cumulative score of four indicators: city liveability, safety, women’s representation in employment and women’s empowerment while the Industrial Inclusion Score evaluates the extent to which organisations in the city across industries are inclusive of women. The Citizen Experience Score captures women’s assessment of their cities and covers six pillars: skilling and employment, caregiving support, transport and accommodation infrastructure, quality of life, efficiency of government bodies, and safety.

“To realise our dream of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need Indian women professionals to succeed on par with men. This is possible only if cities are truly gender-inclusive and offer an atmosphere where women’s strengths can be optimised,” said Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president, Avtar Group. “This means not just providing safe streets, accessible healthcare & education and affordable living to women, which are largely reparatory measures, but also competitive avenues for women’s economic success and opportunities for them to thrive as business leaders.”

According to Rajesh, from an India standpoint, there is a lot more focus on making cities comfortable for women, driven by efforts by respective state governments and local municipalities.

Bengaluru has moved up from the second spot in the TCWI ranking last year to become the number 1 city for women in India this year. While the Karnataka capital has the highest industrial inclusion score, it ranked third in the social inclusion score.

Mumbai demonstrated consistent progress, climbing from Rank 4 in 2023 to Rank 3 in 2024.

Gurugram climbed from an overall positioning of 20 last year to 9 in 2024. This may be attributed to the impact of rapid industrialisation in the region leading it to becoming an employment hub, and generating more opportunities for women.

Many smaller cities including Tiruchirappalli, Vellore, Shimla, Gurugram, Tirupur, and Puducherry feature in the top 25.

The South led as the most inclusive region, scoring comparatively higher in both social and industrial inclusion. The average city inclusion score of the South is 18.56. The South is closely followed by the West (16.92).

Central and Eastern regions lagged, with averages of 11.79 and 10.55, respectively, due to limited industrial development and opportunities. The North is at 14.00, while the industrial inclusion scores of northern cities like Delhi and Gurugram are high, there is scope for improvement in their social inclusion scores.

Statewise, Kerala led with the highest average City Inclusion Score, followed by Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.