Safe City

After daily headlines of assaults, harassment and grim reminders of how unsafe Indian cities can be for women, Mumbai has finally found reason for cautious pride. According to the newly released National Annual Report and Index on Women’s Safety (NARI) 2025, it ranks among the safest cities for women in the country alongside Kohima, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Aizawl, Gangtok and Itanagar. At the other end of the scale, Patna, Jaipur, Faridabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Srinagar and Ranchi sit uncomfortably at the bottom.

For a metropolis that likes to style itself as India’s most cosmopolitan, the ranking is no small vindication of its claim that women here can move, work and live with greater freedom than in most other Indian cities.The NARI index, published by the Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), is based on a survey of 12,770 women across 31 nations. It pegs the national safety score at 65 percent.

Mumbai’s place near the top reflects more than just policing. The city’s culture of late-night commerce, its large female workforce and its near-24/7 public transport add to the sense of security. Women boarding a suburban train at midnight or hailing an auto-rickshaw after a long shift is not unusual. Compared with Delhi, where fear shadows public spaces after dark, Mumbai stands out.

Yet the report also punctures any temptation to celebrate uncritically. Trust in the system remains weak. Only one in four women said they believed authorities would act effectively on safety complaints. Nearly a third judged safety measures inadequate. Harassment remains all too common. Most tellingly, two out of three victims never reported incidents, meaning that official crime statistics mask the scale of the problem.

Mumbai has made efforts that deserve recognition. Police patrols have expanded, CCTV coverage has widened, and women-only train compartments offer some respite. A collective sense of public vigilance also deters mischief. But these gains are fragile. Migration continues to swell the city’s population, straining its infrastructure and law enforcement. Lanes that are unlit, derelict estates and neglected suburbs still provide cover for crime.

Technology cannot be mistaken for a solution. Cameras without responsive policing or helplines that ring unanswered create the illusion of safety. A durable advance requires investment in people and systems, quicker judicial processes and robust victim support. Unless the government invests in lighting, connectivity and civic infrastructure, Mumbai’s reputation will remain precarious.

Gendered violence is a national scourge that deters women from education, work and civic life. Mumbai’s relative success should inspire other cities, but it must also raise its own bar. To be safer than Delhi or Patna is no great triumph. The benchmark must be international. Cities from Tokyo to Seoul show how sustained attention to women’s security boosts not only safety but also urban dynamism. All it takes is one horrific incident to undo years of progress. Mumbai may have climbed the rankings, but unless the trust gap is closed, the sense of safety will remain brittle.