Experts call for cities designed for and by women to create a safer environment

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Surveys cited by the World Bank also show that 50–70% of women in Indian cities avoid public transport for fear of harassment. | Photo Credit: H.S. Manjunath

Researchers, government officials, police, and women’s rights activists came together on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) to call for cities designed for and by women. Such designs would allow women to move around, access public spaces, and participate in economic activities in a safe environment, they argued.

The national consultation was organised to mark 15 years of the UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces initiative.

“Safe cities are no longer only about preventing violence but about how women move around cities, access public spaces and participate in economic activities,” Rajib Kumar Sen, Programme Director, NITI Aayog, said.

“In India’s women-led development, there is an opportunity to make city planning more inclusive, to build a virtuous cycle enabling women’s meaningful access to cities,” he added.

According to a World Bank analysis of India’s 2011 Census data, 45.4% of women walked to work, compared to 27.4% of men. Surveys cited by the World Bank also show that 50–70% of women in Indian cities avoid public transport for fear of harassment.

A 2012 baseline survey by UN Women and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) found that 92% of women in Delhi had experienced some form of sexual violence in public spaces, and only 5% considered those spaces safe.

Stefan Priesner, UN Resident Coordinator in India, said: “Participation matters: the value of moving from designing ‘for women’ to designing ‘with women’ is crucial to building safe cities. Women and girls should be partners in designing public spaces, not just users of them.”

“A truly safe city is not a city with fewer incidents of violence but a city where women have real agency and freedom of choice in planning their daily lives without limitations of security and have a meaningful voice in shaping the design of the city,” he added.

Shoko Ishikawa, Country Representative of UN Women India, said: “Our vision is cities and public spaces where women and girls do not have to negotiate their safety every time they step outside, and where mobility expands their choices rather than limiting them.”

New Delhi was one of the five founding cities of the initiative, alongside Cairo, Kigali, Port Moresby, and Quito.

The initiative now spans 75 cities in 36 countries. In India, this work is also connecting to broader efforts, such as women-friendly and safe tourism destinations in Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala; safe and enabling public spaces in Jabalpur; support for women in the spice and cotton sector in Rajasthan and Kerala; and efforts to secure the tea sector in Assam.

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