Introduction

The first phase of the project primarily concentrated in building capacity and promoting behavioural changes within communities along with increasing the collective strength of Basti Vikas Manch (“Slum Development Platform”). The aim was to a vibrant citizens platform which can monitor water sanitation and hygiene situation in the city on its own and interface with government to resolve the problem. Try to influence to bring in greater transparency and public participation in government decision making processes. Research and data analysis coupled with various advocacy tools are used to bring in the concept of CITIZEN FIRST. This was done through regular dialogues, interface meetings with government functionaries and capacity building of the community on their water and sanitation rights. The key achievement of the earlier phase is a visible behavioural change among the urban poor, wherein the common mind-set of “accepting what is given” has been demystified, and rise in collective action towards demand for right and access to water and sanitation. Through these processes it was observed that collective action by communities has been proved to be the most viable mechanism to minimize the gaps existing between services and their delivery. The successful completion of creating the community platform of BVM provided impetus to further upscale the initiate as a means to pave the pathway of sustainable behavior change. The ongoing project is a step towards such mission where an attempt will be made to upscale the initiatives across slums in Hyderabad from four clusters to more clusters within the peripheries of the city of Hyderabad. Based on experiences from the previous phase, it has been felt that vertical expansion through a city level platform of BVM would enable a higher level of confluence towards advocacy on a common issue in the coming phase. The horizontal expansion will increase the strength of BVMs which would offer more room for cross learning. The integration of horizontal and vertical expansion will create a platform that will stimulate social cohesion and result in building a social capital which demands and implements its water sanitation rights without external intervention.

However the ongoing project would have several risks involved particularly with regard to political interference, lack of political commitment and accountability. The project expected through community intervention to tackle several such risk factors with assumptions that there will be adequate support from the service department. Besides support from the urban local bodies, the project succeeded to a great extent to initiate can pave the way of negotiation and success of this advocacy campaign.