 "Sexual harassment, harassment")
Streetlights may brighten the roads at night, but for many women, the path home is still clouded with fear. The latest National Annual Report and Index on Women’s Safety (NARI) 2025, released on Thursday, confirms this.
Kohima, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Aizawl, Gangtok, Itanagar and Mumbai emerged as the safest cities for women, while Patna, Jaipur, Faridabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Srinagar and Ranchi were ranked at the bottom.
How the index was framed
The report, released by National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar, surveyed 12,770 women across 31 cities. With a national safety score pegged at 65 per cent, cities were rated as performing ‘much above’, ‘above’, ‘below’, or ‘much below’ this benchmark.
Also Read
 "women safety women security crime against women")
 "NCW, NCW logo")
 "women safety women security crime against women")
 "Stock market")
Safer cities were linked with better policing, civic participation, gender equity and infrastructure, while weaker scores were tied to poor urban planning, patriarchal norms and limited institutional responsiveness.
Perceptions of safety
The survey found sharp declines in women’s sense of safety at night, especially in public transport and recreational spaces. While six in ten women said they felt ‘safe’ in their city, 40 per cent rated themselves as ‘not so safe’ or ‘unsafe’.
Daylight provided reassurance: 86 per cent of women reported feeling safe in educational institutions during the day, but this confidence dropped drastically after dark. Similarly, 91 per cent said they felt safe at their workplaces, though half were uncertain about the presence or enforcement of POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) policies.
Trust in authorities
Trust in institutional responses remained weak. Only one in four women expressed confidence in authorities handling complaints effectively. While 69 per cent found existing measures ‘somewhat adequate’, more than 30 per cent pointed to major gaps.
Harassment remains a reality with seven per cent of women facing harassment in public spaces last year, a figure that rose to 14 per cent among women under 24. Neighbourhoods (38 per cent) and public transport (29 per cent) were the most reported hotspots. Yet, two-thirds of incidents went unreported.
The report emphasised that official crime statistics alone fail to reflect the lived experience of women and urged integration of perception-based surveys with NCRB data.
‘Safety is not just law and order’
Unveiling the report, NCW Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar underlined that women’s safety cannot be reduced to law and order. It influences every sphere of life like education, health, employment, mobility and even digital presence.
While she praised initiatives like women helplines, CCTV networks and increasing numbers of women officers and bus drivers, she cautioned that structural fixes are not enough. “We often blame the system, but society must also ask what it has done,” she said.
 "Landslide, Chamoli Landslide")
 "Kim Jong, kim, jong, North Korea leader")
 "US India Trade")
 "PM Modi")
 "cloudburst, Himachal cloudburst")
