Several cities from Northeast India, including Kohima, Aizawl, Gangtok and Itanagar, have been listed among the country’s safest cities for women in the NARI 2025 report released in Delhi.
The study, based on responses from 12,770 women across 31 cities, also placed Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar in the safe category. At the other end, cities including Kolkata, Delhi, Ranchi, Srinagar, Faridabad, Patna and Jaipur were ranked lowest.
While the rankings offered some reassurance, the report found that many women continue to feel unsafe. Six in ten respondents said they felt safe overall, but 40 per cent admitted they considered themselves “not so safe” or “unsafe” in their own cities.
Safety during daytime hours, particularly inside schools and colleges, was rated high at 86 per cent. However, after dark, concerns rose sharply, with women reporting a lack of security in public transport, neighbourhood streets and recreational spaces.
The study also noted that underreporting remains a significant issue. Only one in three women who faced harassment said they had reported the incident, leaving official crime data incomplete. According to the report, two out of three women do not report harassment, meaning that National Crime Records Bureau statistics miss a large share of cases.
National Commission for Women chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar, who released the report, said women’s safety should be understood beyond a law-and-order issue. She pointed out that it affects education, employment, mobility, health and even online presence.
Rahatkar welcomed steps such as women’s helplines, CCTV networks and the increasing number of women police officers and bus drivers, but added that these institutional measures alone cannot ensure security. She said society also needs to question its role, adding that cities can only be considered safe when women are able to move freely, report without hesitation and live without restrictions.
The report concludes that statistics do not always reflect lived experiences and that women’s sense of security continues to be undermined despite improvements on paper.
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