Increasingly in the largest metros in India, older people are not valued and exploited. In many companies people who are more than 40 years are offered vrs. On a train, a middle aged lady was telling co-passengers that in a large metro, they usually prefer younger people, older people often face open discrimination.
In large cities there are a large number of opportunities available, so the local intelligence and security agency officials can afford to be selective in allowing only certain people to live in the city.
In some cases, they may make up some incredible fraud stories to grab the hard earned money of vulnerable people like single women.
The officials are sometimes extremely patronizing towards those who lived in the city, behave as though they are doing a great favor.
On the other hand, in small towns, there are relatively few opportunities available, many of the local retailers have relatively few customers compared to large metro cities , so people usually do not face open harassment.
So for people who are not well connected, small towns are a better option as real estate prices are lower.