Among the world’s megacities, Metro Manila a relatively safe place for women — survey

Metro Manila is one of the safer megacities for women, the results of a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey showed.

The survey, released on October 10, consulted respondent-experts in women's issues in 19 megacities and focused on four key areas:

• sexual violence
• access to healthcare
• cultural practices
• economic opportunities

Cities are scored on a scale of 1 to 19 for each area, with 1 being the worst score and 19 being the best.

Do women in your city feel safe? @TR_Foundation expert poll on the world’s most dangerous megacities: https://t.co/OZOnRiezsC #cities4women pic.twitter.com/vg8ML4wxPL

— Thomson Reuters Fdn (@TR_Foundation) October 16, 2017

The survey referred to "Manila," though as a megacity is defined as having a population of 10 million or more, it is clear it means Metro Manila, not just the City of Manila.

Four categories

Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation

According to the poll results, Manila scored 13 in sexual violence, 10 in access to healthcare, 13 in cultural practices and 17 in economic opportunities.

This means that Manila was the third best (17th out of 19) when it comes to women having access to economic resources including education, land and financial services such as bank accounts.

In that particular category, Manila scored lower than London and Shanghai but higher than even Paris, Tokyo and New York.

London placed first in the overall survey, followed by Tokyo and Paris.

Cairo ranked last in the list, making it the worst megacity for women. Karachi in Pakistan and Kinshasa in Congo placed second and third from bottom, respectively.

The 19 megacities in the survey, ranked from most dangerous for women to safest for women, are:

1. Cairo, Egypt
2. Karachi, Pakistan
3. Kinshasa, Congo
4. Delhi, India
5. Lima, Peru
6. Mexico City, Mexico
7. Dhaka, Bangladesh
8. Lagos, Nigeria
9. Jakarta, Indonesia
10. Istanbul, Turkey
11. Sao Paolo, Brazil
12. Buenos Aires, Argentina
13. New York, USA
14. Manila, Philippines
15. Shanghai, China
16. Moscow, Russia
17. Paris, France
18. Tokyo, Japan
19. London, United Kingdom

— Erwin Colcol/BM, GMA News