From Margins to Mainstream – A Behavioural Transformation in the Slums of Hyderabad through Integrated Urban WASH and Urban Food Production:
Once overshadowed by food insecurity, widespread unemployment, and the absence of basic services, the slums of Hyderabad, Sindh, were long viewed as pockets of hopelessness and neglect. Here, clean drinking water was a luxury, sanitation services were minimal, and livelihoods were scarce. Families lived in a hand-to-mouth mode, caught in a cycle of poor health and poverty. But that narrative has changed not just with improved infrastructure, but with transformed mindsets, attitudes, and behaviours.
The turning point came with the launch of the Urban Food Production Project – Building Resilience for Poor Households and Youth from Marginalised Neighbourhoods in Hyderabad, jointly implemented by FRDP and RDF with technical support from Welthungerhilfe and funded by BMZ. This visionary initiative went beyond service delivery. It sought to change how people lived, worked, and saw themselves, not as passive recipients of aid, but as active agents of transformation.
By integrating WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) with food production, the project introduced a model that redefined community behavior and restructured social relationships. This was the first time such a model had been tested in South Asia, and it was successful.
Households began adopting rooftop gardens and backyard poultry farming, transforming idle rooftops into green spaces and food sources. Women, once restricted to domestic roles, took charge of vegetable production and food processing. Youth, previously unemployed, gained skills in waste management and agribusiness, dairy production, and eventually launched their own micro-enterprises. Community members took pride in maintaining shared sanitation facilities and started separating waste at the household and community levels. Practices that were once unfamiliar became norms.
The project didn’t impose solutions; it facilitated ownership. By engaging local government officials, civil society, and community-based organisations, it built a shared sense of responsibility and pride. Sanitation workers received protective equipment and dignity they are now called Environment Guards. Safe and easy water access improved through regular testing and infrastructure upgrades and provision of required clean energy solutions, and with it, the community’s confidence in public systems.
The ripple effects were profound. Clean, functional public spaces encouraged communal gatherings. Community-run markets emerged. The increased visibility and participation of women and youth in public life began shifting long-held gender norms and social hierarchies.
Most significantly, the slums of Hyderabad, once seen as “other,” are now becoming part of the city’s development narrative. Government authorities, recognizing the community’s transformation, began investing in pavements, solar lights, and inclusive services. These neighbourhoods, once excluded, are now considered vibrant extensions of the urban fabric.
Today, what was once a marginalised population is mainstreamed not just in policy or statistics, but in social behaviour, civic participation, and collective identity. Families eat nutritious meals that they grow themselves. Youth contribute economically. Households manage waste responsibly. Community-led development is no longer a dream but a lived reality.