Bengaluru beats Chennai to become India's best city to work for women

Bengaluru has emerged as India’s leading city for women, surpassing Chennai in the third edition of the “Top Cities for Women in India 2024” (TCWI) report by The Avtar Group, a workplace culture consulting firm.

The TCWI index highlights model cities and best practices, offering a framework for organizations, policymakers, and individuals to promote comprehensive urban development, a key factor in advancing women’s progress across the country.

In addition to Avtar's own research, the index was created by combining data from a number of sources, such as the World Bank, the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), crime statistics, and the Periodic Labour Force Survey.

Between Feb 2024 and Nov 2024, more than 1600 women from around 60 cities participated in a nationwide poll. For the study, 120 cities in India were taken into account.

In 2024, Bengaluru became the top city for women in India, rising from the second position in the TCWI rating the previous year.

Bengaluru was followed by Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune.

Based on Avtar's study and publicly available data, each city is given a "City Inclusion Score," which determines its overall ranking.

The three pillars of the City Inclusion Score (CIS) are the Citizen Experience Score (CES), the Industrial Inclusion Score (IIS), and the Social Inclusion Score (SIS).

Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Vellore, Madurai, Salem, Erode, and Tirupur are the eight cities that make up Tamil Nadu's Top 25 ranking in the Index.

With relatively higher scores in both social and industrial inclusion, the South was shown to be the most inclusive region.

The South's average city inclusion score is 18.56. The West follows closely behind the South with 16.92.

The Central and Eastern regions lag, with averages of 11.79 and 10.55, respectively. The average city inclusion score for North is at 14.

“To realize our dream of a Viksit Bharat (developed nation) 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,” said Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president of the Avtar Group.

“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 go beyond repair and optimize women’s lives and careers,” she added.