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Women’s Rights Organisations are Being Pushed to the Brink

A new UN Women report ‘At Risk and Underfunded’, founded that globally 1 in 3 organisations working to end violence against women and girls have been forced to suspend or shut down programmes due to funding cuts by governments.

This report surveyed 428 women’s rights and civil society organisations, revealing stark results:
🛑 34% have suspended or shut down programmes to end violence against women and girls.
💰 40% have scaled back or closed services such as shelters, legal aid, psychosocial, and healthcare support due to immediate funding gaps.
📉 78% report reduced access to essential services for survivors.
⚠️ 59% say violence is becoming normalised and impunity is rising.
💔 Nearly 1 in 4 have had to halt prevention work entirely, allowing cycles of violence to continue unchallenged.

🗣️ “Women’s rights organisations are the backbone of progress on violence against women, yet they are being pushed to the brink,” says Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief of UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls section. “We cannot allow funding cuts to erase decades of hard-won gains.”

This crisis comes as the world marks 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap for gender equality and women’s rights. But progress is slipping away: Only 5% of organisations expect to survive beyond two years, and 85% fear severe backsliding in laws and protections for women and girls.

Now more than ever, we must ACT. Governments and donors must protect, expand, and make funding flexible for women’s rights organisations. Every dollar invested helps save lives, defend rights, and build a future free from violence for women and girls.

Source: At Risk and Underfunded report by UN Women

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🔍 The Women’s Safety Gap: What the NARI 2025 Report Says About Indian Cities

The National Annual Report and Index on women’s safety (NARI) 2025, by National Commission for Women (NCW), surveyed 12,770 women across 31 cities. The report highlights the stark gap between official safety numbers and how women actually feel on ground. Cities may look “safe” on paper, but daily experiences tell a more troubling story. Despite a national safety score of 65%, a large proportion of women still hesitate to call their cities safe. Underreporting, weak infrastructure, and lack of trust in authorities are widening the gap between perception and reality.

🔑 Key findings:
▪️The national safety score stood at 65%, yet 4 in 10 women feel unsafe.
▪️Only 1 in 3 women report harassment, with verbal abuse being the most common.
▪️Safest cities: Kohima, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Aizawl, Gangtok, Itanagar, and Mumbai.
▪️Least safe cities: Patna, Jaipur, Faridabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Srinagar, and Ranchi.
▪️Trust deficit: Only 25% of women believe authorities will act effectively.

Chennai (ranked 21st with a score of 61.7%) sees 54% of women feeling safe, though concerns around public transport, poor lighting, and harassment persist. Meanwhile, Jaipur (25th place with 59.1%) struggles even more; only 10% of women feel “highly safe” after dark, with weak infrastructure and underreporting magnifying vulnerabilities.

These numbers underscore a bigger truth: Safety isn’t just about policing, it’s about women’s freedom to move, work, and live with dignity. As NCW Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar emphasised, solutions must go beyond law enforcement, integrating better urban design, gender-sensitive infrastructure, and stronger accountability.

To build safer cities, we need:
▪️Gender-inclusive urban planning (lighting, toilets, safe public spaces)
▪️More women in law enforcement and civic services.
▪️Reliable mechanisms for reporting and action.
▪️Education on how to treat women right and respect them.

What changes do you think will make cities safe for women? Let us know in the comments.

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