Women prefer to live and work in south Indian cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai over northern cities including New Delhi, the national capital, according to a survey.
The top 10 cities in the million-plus population category preferred by women are Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Coimbatore, and Madurai, Avtar, a diversity, equity and inclusion solutions firm, said in a report titled, ‘Viewport 2022 - Top Cities for Women in India.’
In smaller towns with a population of less than 1 million, the top preferences are Tiruchirappalli, Vellore, Erode, Salem, Tirupur, Puducherry, Shimla, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Belagavi.
Tamil Nadu had the most number of preferred cities and towns. Chennai topped the million-plus population category with a score of 78.41, while in the smaller towns, Tiruchirappalli was No. 1 with a score of 71.61.
Three Tamil Nadu cities figured in the top 10, while among towns with a population of less than a million, the top five were all from the southern state.
Delhi ranked 14th
New Delhi was ranked 14th with a score of 41.36, more than 30 points fewer than the top city. The national capital not featuring in the top 10 cities for women was not surprising, the survey report noted.
It added that the capital cities of many states did not feature in the top 25 spots of both categories. The state/Union Territory capitals that featured in the Top 25 belonged to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Odisha.
Most state capitals generally get a lot of attention – politically, socio-economically, environmentally, and developmentally. Their absence from the Top 25 necessitates a deeper probe by policymakers to understand the barriers they face in being women-friendly cities and towns.
According to Saundarya Rajesh, founder of Avtar, south Indian cities have historically been more supportive of women.
“Historically, the northern states were constantly subject to war and life-altering events. There was a constant fight for survival for residents of these cities. The southern states were comparatively peaceful. Childcare systems such as aanganwadis focusing on creating a support system for working mothers date back to the Chola era. There’s a historical context to why southern cities are friendlier for women.”
The United Nations defines women-friendly cities as those that provide women access to health, education, employment opportunities, a comprehensive urban social service set-up and safety. These are cities where the local government is conscious of women issues, she explained.
New Delhi may have an incredible metro system, but it is also a fact that the crime response rate is poor. A city needs to provide for enough hostels for women from other places to work in the country’s capital, she added.
The report was based on a survey of 783 women in 111 cities including tier-1, 2 and 3 cities. Weightage was applied to the social inclusion score and the industrial inclusion score, with women weighing social inclusion aspects including ease of living, safety and city amenities at 80 percent and availability of job opportunities at 20 percent (transcending this weightage to the industrial inclusion score).
The data showed that tier-2 and 3 cities, which make up the less-than-a-million category, have comparatively higher scores for averages as well as for the sub-dimensions, the report said.
Of the 111 cities indexed, only 47 were found to be above the national average of 37.75. In other words, almost 58 percent of the cities in the study fared lower than the national average, which itself is about 12 points less than the median of 50.
This is a clarion call to the authorities that there should be an immediate improvement for a majority of the cities, the survey report said