Is Pune accepting to women? As a female software engineer it is important I feel included in the community. Seeing as Pune is a top suggestion in this thread I assume so. Thoughts?
India is not safe country for women in general. I don't know about Pune but it should be a similar situation. You can hardly see any women traveling alone at night in most Indian cities. Our law enforcement are just terrible compared to west. Crimes are high. There is nothing like 911 that will take care of you in a matter of minutes if something bad happens. Take most advices on India with a pinch of salt and please don't relocate here untill and unless you have experienced India first hand by yourselves. Most places are overpopulated and over polluted. People dont follow traffic rules and everything about India is completely opposite that of the west. A western colleague of mine got hit by car almost twice in the firsy day we went out. You can hardly find any foreigners in Indian cities unless its a tourist hotspot. In most cases there is nothing for you to justify moving to India. Look at the H1B visas from India and number of Indian students doing masters in foreign countries. Almost anyone who can relocate from India would do that in an instant if they have the resources.
Although Pune has the highest number of expats of any city in India, and is generally safe/accepting of expat men and women. (Although overall India is quite unsafe for women and I agree with you that anyone who wants to relocate to India should first spend a nice long holiday/internship here)
You should take a look into this blog post https://medium.com/@oliviagoldstein/a-year-in-india-told-by-....