And alongside Sao Paulo, it came joint bottom in the survey when experts on women’s issues were polled about the risk women run of encountering sexual violence in 19 different megacities.

“I’m not surprised by the results as they’re based on perceptions. India and Brazil have seen a lot of media attention on sexual violence in recent years,” said Rebecca Reichmann Tavares, head of UN Women in India who also worked in Brazil.

“Sexual violence in both these cities is, of course, a reality, but there isn’t any definitive data to suggest that rates are higher in Delhi and Sao Paulo than any other city.”

The survey asked 380 experts in cities with populations of more than 10 million to assess the risk of sexual violence and harmful cultural practices to women, as well as rank women’s access to health care and economic opportunities.

The Egyptian capital Cairo was rated the most dangerous city for women overall and rated third worst for sexual violence, followed by Mexico City and Dhaka. Tokyo was seen as the safest city for women in terms of sexual violence.

Public awareness on sex attacks in Delhi has surged since the Delhi bus attack and thrown a global spotlight on gender violence in the world’s second most populous nation.

Indian newspapers offer a daily array of sex crimes. Girls molested in school, professional women raped by taxi drivers while commuting home, village teens duped, trafficked and sold to brothels in the red-light districts of cities.

Brazilians are fed a similar diet, with multiple reports of assaults on women and girls in Sao Paulo – Brazil’s most populous city with 21 million people, according to UN figures.

In India, authorities have been forced to act.

This includes stricter punishments for gender crimes, a 24-hour women’s helpline and fast track courts for rape cases as well as a fund to finance crisis centres for victims.

Women’s desks in many of the city’s police stations have been established, thousands of police received gender sensitisation classes, and there is increased patrolling, surveillance and more checkpoints across Delhi at night.

Companies, charities, students and even individuals have also launched countless initiatives – from smartphone safety apps and gender lessons for taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers to women’s self-defence classes and female cab services.

Voracious media reporting on sex crimes has helped break the silence, shame and fear of rape, but reports of sex crimes continue to rise.

There were 2,155 rapes recorded in Delhi in 2016 – a rise of 67 per cent from 2012, according to police data.

Sao Paulo had 2,868 reported in 2016, according to government figures, but Brazilian think tank, the Institute of Applied Economic Research, estimates only 10 per cent of rape cases are reported.

In a slum in Delhi’s outskirts, auto-rickshaw driver Suresh sits on a bed in a one-roomed concrete house, telling how his teenage sister was dragged to a nearby wasteland and raped by a neighbour as she walked home from college in March.

“This city is unsafe. We know it is, but what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to lock her up?,” he said. “We see the stories every day in the news. Nothing has changed since the Delhi gang rape. Nothing.”

Authorities attribute the surge in numbers to more victims reporting crimes, rather than more sexual violence occurring.

Activists say it is probably a combination of both.