Bengaluru tops list of best Indian cities for women
What's the story
Bengaluru has been ranked the best city for women in India, according to the "Top Cities for Women in India 2025" report by Avtar Group. The report evaluated 125 cities on factors like women's inclusion, safety, employment opportunities, and quality of life. Bengaluru scored a City Inclusion Score (CIS) of 53.29, thanks to its robust industrial ecosystem and high female workforce participation. Avtar Group describes its work as enabling enterprises achieve leadership development, workforce transformation, and culture-centric hiring.
Other cities
Chennai and Pune follow Bengaluru in rankings
Chennai and Pune were ranked second and third, with scores of 49.86 and 46.27, respectively. Chennai's strong social infrastructure, education continuity, safe public transport initiatives, and women-focused welfare schemes contributed to its high score. Pune's balanced performance across employment opportunities, healthcare access, and workplace safety earned it the third spot.
Final rankings
Hyderabad and Mumbai complete top 5 cities
Hyderabad and Mumbai rounded off the top five with scores of 46.04 and 44.49, respectively. While Hyderabad benefited from integrated safety governance and a growing IT sector, Mumbai's employment scale was offset by challenges like affordability and congestion. The rankings were based on a composite City Inclusion Score derived from the Social Inclusion Score and the Industrial Inclusion Score.
Key findings
Report highlights importance of city-level ecosystems
The report also highlighted the importance of city-level ecosystems in determining women's workforce participation. It found that cities with strong employment opportunities, safety, mobility, and care infrastructure consistently ranked higher. It found that where cities were inclusive of women, benefits extended beyond gender to strengthen local economies, as well as urban resilience.
Regional trends
Southern cities dominate rankings for women's inclusion
The report also noted that southern cities dominated the rankings, highlighting stronger social and industrial inclusion compared to other regions. Other cities in the top 10 included Gurugram, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, and Coimbatore. These findings of the report underscore the role of Tier-1 and select Tier-2 cities in enabling women's careers and well-being.