Bengaluru Overtakes Chennai and Emerges as India’s Best City for Working Women in 2024 in the ‘Top Cities for Women in India’ Survey Conducted by the Avtar Group

• Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune bag the top five positions.

• South India emerges as the most gender-inclusive region, with 16 South Indian cities featuring in the Top 25

Avtar group, India’s pioneer in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) solutions and India’s leading workplace culture consulting firm, announced the third edition of ‘Top Cities for Women in India (TCWI)‘ index today. Karnatakas State Capital Bengaluru, reigns supreme by topping the ranking for being the most inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities for working women. Bengaluru has scored high in skilling and employment for women, infrastructure and caregiving support.

‘Top Cities for Women in India 2024’ Survey conducted by the Avtar Group

Speaking at the press conference, Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President, Avtar group said, “Cities are the foundations of opportunity. They shape how women live, work, and thrive. So, a clear understanding of the core principles and cultural fabric of our cities is crucial for advancing women’s progress and inclusion. Avtar’s annual index ‘Top Cities for Women in India” does precisely that, using a data-centric and evidence-based approach. And, to realize our dream of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need the 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 optimized. 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. Let’s invest in women-led projects and optimize women’s lives and careers.“

About TCWI index
Top Cities for Women in India (TCWI) index identifies role model cities and best practices, and provides a framework for organizations, policymakers and individuals to foster well-rounded development in our cities, which is a pivotal driver of women’s progress nationwide. The index has been compiled by assimilating various data sources including the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), the World Bank, crime records and Periodic Labour Force Survey, along with Avtar’s primary research. Avtar’s research included FGDs and a nation-wide survey that was conducted from February 2024 to November 2024 in which 1672 women from 60 cities participated.

The Top 10 Cities for Women in 2024 include: Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Coimbatore.

Criteria for selecting the top 10 cities for Indian women in 2024
120 cities across India were considered for the study, based on their economic contribution to the country. The cities were 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 that include city livability, safety, women’s representation in employment and women’s empowerment.

• The Industrial Inclusion Score evaluates the extent to which organizations in the city across industries are inclusive of women.

• The Citizen Experience Score captures women’s assessment of their cities and is calculated from the responses collated from women across India through FGDs and surveys. It covers six pillars: Skilling and employment, caregiving support, transport and accommodation infrastructure, quality of life, efficiency of government bodies, and safety.

While the first two editions of the TCWI index featured two lists of cities – ‘Million-plus’ cities and ‘Less than a million’ cities, this year’s report has a single unified ranking because of several factors such as outdated population data, rapid urbanization and migration, and to simplify the execution process for stakeholders.

The findings
Regional analysis:
The South emerges 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). The Central and Eastern regions lag, with averages of 11.79 and 10.55, respectively. This is a result of limited industrial development and opportunities.

The North is at 14.00 – It is worth noting that while the industrial inclusion scores of Northern cities like Delhi and Gurugram are high, there is scope for improvement in their social inclusion scores.

State-wise analysis:
Kerala leads with the highest average City Inclusion Score of 20.89, followed by Telangana at 20.57, Maharashtra at 19.93, Tamil Nadu at 19.38 and Karnataka at 17.50.

Women’s ratings of cities:
Skilling and employment: Gurugram is rated the highest (7.68 – out of 10) by women. Among the bigger cities, Mumbai (7.60) and Bengaluru (7.54) score highest in skilling and employment, while Chennai (7.09), Hyderabad (6.95) and Thiruvananthapuram (5.51) lag slightly behind.

Infrastructure: Hyderabad (8.01) secures the highest score for infrastructure (a well-connected public transport system and other travel amenities). Hyderabad is closely followed by Mumbai (7.64) and Bengaluru (7.52). Among the smaller cities, Coimbatore (7.75) and Kochi (7.41) score high in infrastructure.

Efficiency of government bodies: Thiruvananthapuram (8.15) and Pune (7.06) top governance efficiency. Gurugram at 6.48 has room for improvement.

Quality of life: Coimbatore (7.54), Pune (7.50) and Chennai (7.05) report the best quality of life. Gurugram scores relatively low (6.34), which may be attributed to environmental challenges.

Safety: Thiruvananthapuram (7.43), Mumbai (7.19) and Hyderabad (6.95) lead in safety, while women rate Bengaluru (6.17), Kochi (6.02) and Gurugram (5.60) comparatively low in safety.

For more details, refer to the Top Cities for Women in India 2024 report – www.avtarinc.com/extend/twci

About Avtar
Avtar, founded in 2000 by Dr Saundarya Rajesh, is one of India’s leading workplace culture consulting firms, supporting hundreds of companies in creating diverse and supportive workplaces. Avtar is credited with introducing the concepts of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) to Indian corporates, and is also the country’s largest provider of second career opportunities for women.

An ISO 20700 certified firm, Avtar’s biggest research project is its annual benchmarking study – the 100 Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) and the Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI). Done in partnership with Seramount, BCWI and MICI are India’s largest DEI benchmarking studies, which have paved the way for the employment of more women and other under-represented groups. Avtar also promotes diversity hiring through MyAvtar, India’s first diversity job portal.

To know more, visit www.avtarinc.com | www.myavtar.com

A snapshot of Avtar’s work in the last 24 years

• Provided advisory services in inclusive practices to 500+ organizations

• Conducted 20,000+ training programs in companies of different sizes, spanning industries and locations

• Coached more than 25,000 managers in DEI

• Facilitated the re-entry of 1,00,000 second-career women into the workforce through MyAvtar.com

• Provided Intentional Career Pathing training to 200,000+ women, preventing them from leaving the workforce

• Offered unique skilling programs such as DigiPivot (a prestigious course in digital marketing, conducted in partnership with Google, HUL, and ISB) to hundreds of women.

• Provided career intentionality training, employment guidance, and access to industry leaders every year to 10,000+ girls from underprivileged backgrounds through Project Puthri.

• For its transformational impact in the realm of DEI, Avtar Group was listed in the prestigious Steward Leadership 25 Listing by Strait Times & INSEAD at Singapore in 2022.