Chapter 15

The Changing Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity of Hyderabad, India
Christoph Dittrich

Abstract While poverty levels are declining in India, concerns over food and nutrition are increasing. In the changing food scenario of globalising urban India two contradictory trends can be recognised: The rst concerns the underprivileged urban dwellers who are still highly exposed to food insecurity and hunger. Decient diets cause severe incidence of malnutrition particularly among women and children. The second major trend concerns the rapidly changing food consumption patterns and diet transition among the emerging urban middle classes. Due to economic growth and new lifestyle choices their demand for greater variety of food products has never been as it is at the present. Supermarkets and fast food outlets mushrooming all over the big cities are just one indicator of this. This paper analyses the changing food scenario in the emerging megacity of Hyderabad. It starts by providing an overview of recent trends in the food provision and retail system, then, goes into changes in food purchasing and dietary patterns among Hyderabads middle classes and covers nutrition related health issues. Finally, the issue of localising sustainable food practises is discussed. Keywords Globalisation Hyderabad Lifestyle changes Urban food system Urban middle class

15.1 Introduction
Indias economic growth has accelerated signicantly since 1991, when the country opened up its markets to foreign investors and slashed regulations. With GDP growth rates of six to nine per cent over the past decade, the country has become a hot spot for investors, a dynamo in the outsourcing and high-tech industries, and

C. Dittrich (B) Institute of Cultural Geography, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany e-mail: christoph.dittrich@geographie.uni-freiburg.de

H. Lange, L. Meier (eds.), The New Middle Classes, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-9938-0 15, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

269

270

C. Dittrich

a competitor for headlines with that other emerging economic power, China. If the country keeps up its high growth pattern over the next decades the Indian market will undergo a major transformation. Income levels, which have roughly doubled since 1985, will almost triple over the next two decades and India will climb from its position as the worlds twelfth largest consumer market in 2007 to become fth largest by 2025. As incomes have risen, the shape of the countrys income pyramid is also changing. India is creating a sizeable and largely urban middle class. Exactly who and how many people constitute this expanding middle class is hard to estimate and varies according to its denition (Ablett et al., 2007; Fernandes, 2006; Sridharan, 2004). In 2005/06 the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) dened about eighteen million households (ninety million people) as the afuent middle class with a real annual household disposable income of more than 200,000 Indian rupees (14,500 euro at purchasing power parity (PPP), comprising approximately nine per cent of the countrys population). Along with the estimated 300 million aspirers, who still have relatively modest means (households earning 90,000 to 200,000 Indian rupees per year; 6,500 to 14,500 euro at PPP), they constitute Indias new consuming class and act as the main drivers of the booming domestic market (NCAER, 2007). Accordingly, their consumption habits and resource-intensive lifestyles lead to increased resource consumption (e.g., water, land, energy) and greenhouse gas emissions (Mawdsley, 2004). Growing household disposable income and new lifestyle choices also have strong impacts on Indias urban food systems and nutrition practises (Pingali, 2007; Pingali & Khwaja, 2004; Shetty, 2002).

15.2 Trends in the Food Retail and Provision System of Hyderabad

During recent years, the emerging Indian megacity of Hyderabad with its present population of more than six million developed into one of Indias leading new techone cities. The agglomeration, which is expected to grow to about eight million inhabitants in 2011, is reaching its place to Cyberabad as a centre for information and communication technologies and hardware as well. Hyderabads ICT-industries, predominately located at Hitec City at the urban fringe, are growing at rates that are amazing compared to world standards, about thirty per cent annually, and they were worth over 3.5 billion US dollars in 2006/07. The city also emerged fast as the biotech hub of India (Dittrich, 2008). Due to times of economic boom, Hyderabad generates considerable opportunities, but also strong pressure for change accompanied by environmental degradation. The agglomeration grows much faster than its infrastructure, and the largely uncontrolled urban sprawl fosters negative effects of high trafc volumes, ecological overload, unregulated and disparate property markets and such extremes of poverty

15 Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity

271

and wealth living side by side that already provoke social unrest.1 The meteoric rise of the metropolis to Indias second Silicon Valley after Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) and the shift toward a liberalised market-oriented political agenda result in profound changes on the metropolitan social map, creating a highly polarised and fragmented social setting. One of the main driving forces behind this urban restructuring are the urban middle-class consumers as the most visible representatives of liberalising India. In Hyderabad about forty per cent of the citys population belong to this highly heterogeneous social stratum, comprised of various reference groups with their own economic, political and socio-cultural backgrounds and interests. One important segment of Hyderabads middle class consists of highly skilled and English-speaking urban professionals of the modern service industries, but also of members of the real estate, banking, accountancy, advertising and entertainment businesses. This new urban middle class also includes thousands of workers in call centres and data entry and transcribing work ofces, almost all in their twenties and early thirties, whose most characteristic feature appears to be consumerism. They spend a considerable part of their earnings on global consumer goods like western-style clothing, consumer electronics, motorbikes and other luxuries and are keen to display their latest acquisitions actively to a public audience (Fernandes, 2006; Fuller & Narasimhan, 2007). Due to growing household disposable income and new lifestyle choices the urban middle classes also demand greater diversity of food products, and their enthusiasm for eating out has never been as great as it is at present. This makes investing the citys food retailing and provision system exceedingly protable.2 Since the late 1990s Hyderabad, like all other large Indian cities, experiences the entry of the corporate retail sector at a progressive rate. Malls, hyper- and supermarkets, fast food outlets, coffee shops and ice-cream parlours are mushrooming all over the city. At the beginning of 2007 there were already over one hundred largescale retail businesses across the entire city, with the exception of the high density historic city centre. Twenty of them have a sales area of over 100,000 sq. m. each.3 Hyderabad is thus among the cities with the highest density of supermarkets in the country. An end of this expansion is not in sight. The supermarket chains Subiksha and Reliance Fresh, who specialise in selling fruits and vegetables, are planning to double the number of their franchisees by 2010 (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007).
1 Hyderabad has a long history of communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims. In 2007 the city was shaken by different terrorist bombings and subsequent riots, killing over one hundred people and injuring hundreds more. 2 Indias retail industry is one of the fastest growing worldwide and was estimated to be worth 350 billion US dollars in 2007, of which the organised retail accounts for only eight per cent. This organised part of the retail industry is growing at thirty per cent annually and is likely to reach 33 billion by 2015; cif. India Brand Equity Foundation, Retrieved January 21, 2008, from http://www.ibef.org/industry/retail.aspx. 3 The majority of Indian shops is rather small in size; fewer than ve per cent of the stores have more than 100 sq. m.

272

C. Dittrich

While domestic operators are speeding up their expansion plans foreign retail giants are guring out ways of entering the Indian market.4 Waiting in the wings and actively negotiating with several Indian companies as potential partners are the US retail giant Wal Mart, Tesco from the UK and Carrefour from France. Germanys Metro and South Africas Shoprite have already entered the India market with a cash-and-carry business that supplies retailers and restaurants only. Some international fast food chains including Dunkin Donuts, H agen-Dazs, McDonalds, a Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Subway have recently opened branches in some of the citys prime locations. They offer food and sweets prepared to Indian sensibilities.5 However, the citys food retail system is still largely dominated by the so-called informal sector which is characterised by high levels of self-organisation, decentralisation and low capital input. Most retailing of fresh foods still occurs in regulated producer markets (rythu bazaars) and roadside hawker parks.6 Thousands of traditional retailers like kirana (mom-and-pop stores), grocers and provision stores follow their business in every part of the city. Another important pillar of Hyderabads food provisioning is the system of public distribution of foods, which came into existence soon after independence in 1947 through government ration shops and where food grains, oil, red chillies and onions for the daily consumption of the poor are distributed at subsidised rates (Landy & Ruby, 2005). This traditional system of urban food retailing is now under severe pressure. A recently conducted study reveals the negative effects of corporate retail outlets on the existing shopkeepers and vendors. The majority of kirana shopkeepers and petty traders already experience a sharp decline in their sale and turnover, since corporate retail outlets have come up in their area. Local vendors deplore losses of forty per cent and many vegetable vendors have already given up their business because they could not compete with prices, product quality and the shiny product presentation of the surrounding retail outlets (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007).7

15.3 Changing Food Purchasing and Dietary Patterns among Hyderabads Middle Classes
It is mostly the upwardly-mobile middle class with their rapidly changing lifestyles and consequently evolving preferences and tastes who enjoy the fruits of the retail revolution. These consumers already have the incomes adequate to meeting their
At present, foreign direct investment is permitted only in a single brand retail with fty-one per cent ownership, so that several foreign retailers are entering the market through the back door, selling to the wholesale market or tying up with an Indian partner. 5 McDonalds offers home delivery and vegetarian burgers, and Pizza Huts only all-vegetarian outlets are located in India. 6 Over the past few years a substantial increase in the number of street food vendors has been noted. According to EKTHA Footpath Vendors Association Hyderabad has about 15,000 street food vendors who provide a large selection of cheap and nourishing food to urban dwellers. 7 A study conducted by the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology/Navdanya in the Paharganj area of Delhi achieved the same results; see http://navdanya.org.
4

15 Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity

273

basic food needs and so, instead of increasing the amount of food they buy, they increase their spending on higher-value items in terms of variety and quality. A survey undertaken in one of Hyderabads upmarket suburbs reveals that particularly the middle-class age group of 2545 years prefers to purchase their food and beverages in sophisticated retail outlets and supermarkets. Notably the emerging super malls with their everything-under-one-roof and shop-in-the-shop concepts appear to be the sanctuaries for younger middle-class shoppers where they can temporarily secede from the hot, noisy and dusty Indian reality, just like being in a foreign country, as one shopper stated. Another customer added: I love shopping at the new-style grocery store where I can get ready-to-drink packaged buttermilk, instant noodles and soups and even frozen chickens, marinated meats and pre-cut I dont have to clean. Other main reasons given by customers for buying at corporate retail outlets were the large variety of hygienic and fresh food, special offers, the relaxed air-conditioned environment, convenient parking space and saving of time (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007).8 With more single working youth, nuclear families, working mothers, and generally faster-paced, mobile, metropolitan lifestyles, Hyderabads afuent middle class is increasingly prepared to spend on eating out, ready-to-eat food and experimenting with alternative cuisines and more diverse food and beverage products. The city is currently undergoing an incredible mushrooming of upmarket restaurants, clubs, food courts, coffee bars and eateries reecting rising living standards, the loss of the joint family kitchen with grandmothers or aunts preparing meals, and the growing importance of the event nature of food. Restaurants serving Italian, French, Lebanese and even Mongolian food have recently opened. Interviews with young urban climbers reveal that their enthusiasm for resource-intensive lifestyles and consumption patterns implies their desire for social acceptance but also reects their attitude of downward delimitation towards those who are poor and vulnerable and not willing or capable to participate in consumerist lifestyles.9 Apart from fostering the consumption of a growing diversity of food, the middle class will also drive changes in the way food is purchased. Traditionally, Indians preferred to buy fresh food, with fruits and vegetable sellers offering their items usually twice daily at the doorstep, and housewives using only freshly ground spices to prepare meals and beverages. Packaged food was traditionally perceived as stale. However, as a result of growing necessity and affordability, this mindset is slowly changing, and a new perception that packaged is hygienic and high quality is resulting in rapidly growing sales of branded and packaged food. One
8 Formerly exotic vegetables and herbs are now more commonplace in Hyderabad. Single upmarket grocers sell broccoli, iceberg lettuce, thyme, basil and other non-Indian products. 9 Another important aspect of downwards delimitation apparent among middle class adolescents is the increasing use of the Hinglish or Inglish street languages, the mixing of Indian English with Hindi or other Indian languages. This trend accompanied the rapid spread of English across India (English language-skills serves as a kind of passport to jobs and to entering the lower middle class), but is also a result of blockbuster Hindi movies and the universal appeal of certain programs of Hindi TV channels, such as Indian Idol and Kaum Benega Crorepati. Using Hinglish or Inglish is regarded as cool and also sets the young members of the middle class apart from the parent generation and the poverty-stricken non-English speakers.

274

C. Dittrich

survey on supermarket customers showed that processed and convenience food is purchased by three-quarters of middle-class households. Most items bought were ready-made products, such as instant noodles and soups, sauces, jams and pickles, carbonated drinks, biscuits and chocolate bars (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007). Better electrical infrastructure and the greater penetration of refrigerators and microwaves mean that frozen foods are also becoming increasingly popular. While poverty levels are generally declining in urban India, concerns over food and nutrition security are increasing. In Hyderabad, two contradictory trends can be recognised: The rst concerns the underprivileged urban dwellers. Over half of Hyderabads population is poor, and more than 1.2 million Hyderabadis live in marginal settlements. This social stratum of poor involuntary climate protectors (Reusswig, Lotze-Campen, & Gerlinger, 2005) is still highly vulnerable to food insecurity and hunger. Decient diets also cause severe incidence of malnutrition particularly among women and children (Smith, Garrett, & Vardhan, 2007).10 The second major trend concerns the rapidly changing food consumption patterns and diet transition among urban middle classes. According to Pingali and Khwaja (2004) this process of diet transformation can be seen as evolving in two distinct stages: During the rst stage, income-induced diet diversication, middle-class consumers move away from inferior goods to nutritionally superior foods and replace some of the traditional staples, especially pulses and millet, traditionally a very important source of vegetable proteins in the habitual Indian diet. In Hyderabad middleclass consumers typically demand higher quality varieties of rice and signicantly increase their wheat consumption in the form of bread and other wheat-based products such as cakes and cookies. It is important to note that the use of wheat is changing as well, since there is a move away from the traditional at bread (chapati) to more commercialised bread products similar to those found in Great Britain or the US (toast, white bread) (Shetty, 2002). There is also a tendency towards traditional dishes and food preparation techniques falling into oblivion. The very rare consumption of millets as raghi or jowar, the declining use of tumeric and cumin or the loss of knowledge of using boiled rice water are a few examples. In the second stage of the process of diet transformation the new dietary habits of the more afuent ones are starting to reect global patterns. Middle-class consumers in Hyderabad exhibit a strong preference for livestock and dairy products, sugar, fats and oils and highly processed convenience foods and drinks, all of which are readily available in the emerging supermarkets and fast-food outlets.11 Consumption of fast-food snacks is also increasing tremendously. According to a study conducted by the National Institute for Nutrition, sixty per cent of adolescent girls from
10

The study also clearly evidenced the lack of state- and city-level involvement in food and nutrition issues (Smith et al., 2007). 11 A survey on middle-class supermarket customers revealed that processed and convenience food is purchased by about eighty per cent of the shoppers (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007). According to a survey on dietary habits of school children in Hyderabad, less than one percent of low income groups consumed instant food daily, while middle-class pupils eat instant food nearly every day (Vijayapushpam, Menon, Raghunatha Rao, & Antony, 2002: 685).

15 Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity

275

Hyderbads afuent class consume fast food at least once a week, forty per cent even opt for carbonated drinks and bakery items every day (Raghunatha, Vijayapushpam, Antony, Subba Rao, & Rameshwar Sarma, 2004). Most importantly, schools and colleges in middle-class areas permitted franchisers of multinational corporations to sell anything ranging from chocolate bars, potato chips and carbonated soft drinks in their canteens. Pizza, burgers and ice cream subsequently became food symbols for younger middle-class Hyderbadis. In addition, as experiences from other countries suggests the popularity of lifestyle categories such as premium foods, health and dietary supplements is also growing across the city, particularly for high-end global consumers. A very recent trend is the growing market for healthy and organic food reecting the emerging health consciousness of the afuent urban class.12 This growth is becoming evident in the increase in organised producers, retailers and product offerings in markets, where the movement had previously been driven entirely by the spirit of individual initiatives of the farmers, the odd entrepreneur and nongovernmental organisations. In Hyderabad, there were six locations in 2007 where organic food items could be purchased. The range of goods differs greatly, especially in comparison to 24Lettered Mantra, the rst organic superstore countrywide, set up in 2005 by Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd. in the up-market neighbourhood of Banjara Hills.13 The store sells organically grown fruits, vegetables, staples and spices, which are otherwise hard to nd in retail. Food Bazaar, the food division of Pantaloon Retail, based on a comprehensive food and grocery store format and operating three outlets in Hyderabad also introduced an organic product line in 2005. Fabindia, the one-billion-rupees apparel and home furnishings retailer, also ventured into organic foods. Their goal is to be able to offer customers a completely organic lifestyle.14 However, according to experts, the supply chain mechanism, quality, consistency, storage facilities and shelf life are still the big critical issues for the organic foods segment to grow. At least in Hyderabad, the demand for organic food is still in a very early but vital stage. Interviews with middle-class supermarket customers revealed that just one quarter of them had ever heard about organic food, although most claimed to be more health conscious than a few years back. The study also found out that most of the customers opted for organic food because they suffered from hypersensitivity and other health problems. Environmental

12 India is one of the largest exporters of organic food products worldwide (seventy per cent of the total organic food production is exported), but there are still very few locations within India (predominantly in the big cities) where organic food can be purchased (Bhattacharyya & Chakraborty, 2005; Lohr & Dittrich, 2007). 13 In 2007 the company expanded countrywide and opened stores in Bangalore and Pune. 14 Non-brand organic food items are also available at the Dekkan Development Societys ofce at the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Tarnaka. Both Fabindia and the Dekkan Development Society obtain grains, pulses and millets from regional farmers producing under their guidelines. At the Erragadda Rythu Bazaar two stalls offer organic food and every Sunday farmers also sell organic farm products there.

276

C. Dittrich

reasons or the well-being of farmers did not appear to motivate their purchase (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007). The process of diet globalisation is clearly assisted by the globalisation of the mass media. The proliferation of global entertainment through popular television programmes or block-buster movies permits the wide-scale advertising of global products. Sports events with national coverage are often sponsored by famous food brands, too. This has a huge appeal particularly for the young market. According to Pingali and Khwaja (2004), fty per cent of food advertising in India is targeted at children, and seventy per cent of those customers who purchase convenience food do so because their children ask them to. As a result, the mass media make certain types of food socially prestigious or pin a label of tastiness to certain dietary items. Another aspect of the inuence of the mass media on consumption practices is the very consumption of television itself. Idle watching, uninterrupted snacking, a sedentary lifestyle and abstaining from outdoor activities make the average middleclass adolescent who spends four to six hours a day in front of the TV more prone to obesity and other food-related non-communicable diseases (NDCs).

15.4 Health Issues

The changes in dietary practises and lifestyles associated with rising afuence has drawn attention to the disturbing escalations in the prevalence of chronic NCDs, especially coronary heart diseases, diabetes mellitus, hernia, liver disorders and changing proles of cancer. The underlying feature common to these developments is the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity in the urban middle classes.15 India ranks among the ten nations with the highest obesity rate worldwide, and a closer look on Hyderabads health situation also gives evidence to this fact.16 About thirty per cent of the citys middle-class adolescents are overweight and ten per cent are obese (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007). As childhood and adolescent obesity persist during adulthood, these ndings are alarming. There are two major factors responsible for the increasing number of obese urban Indians. Firstly, obesity results from the over-consumption of calories and too little exercise. Studies recently conducted in Hyderabad clearly show that there is a general tendency among higherincome families towards high-energy foods such as fast-food snacks, carbonated beverages and sweets in combination with too little physical exercise. The city also boasts a ravenous appetite for sweets of all kinds. Sweets are nowadays obligatory at any social occasion and during any visit to someones home. Particularly children quickly learn to prefer tastes, avours and even textures that are associated with

Obesity is an excess of body fat that frequently results in a signicant impairment of health. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), somebody is overweight when they have a BMI ranging between 25 and 29.9 and obese if their BMI is 30 or more. 16 Nutrition consultants in Hyderabad also increasingly face the problem of very skin, zero-calorie dieting young females following the western-style obsession with beauty.

15

15 Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity

277

calorie-dense foods. Obesity is also related to family size and birth order. The majority of obese children belong to nuclear families and are the eldest or the only child. The second factor responsible for the increasing number of obese urban Indians are genetically induced metabolic disorders, consisting of hypertension, insulin resistance, abdominal obesity and dylipidemia. Hyderabad also exhibits a dramatically increasing incidence of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance due to unhealthy lifestyle modications (less movements, more fattening foods, higher stress). In the city, seventeen per cent of adults are estimated to suffer from the disease, Indias highest concentrations and three times the share of two decades ago (Mohan, Madan, Jha, Deepa, & Pradeepa, 2004). Several local hospitals, also known as the sugar hospitals, are devoted to the illness. Diabetes and related complications also have strong economic implications for patients.17 Middle-class diabetics often exhaust a quarter or more of their income on medication and care, while most of health insurance policies do not cover this disease. On the other hand, a small segment of urban consumers are becoming more and more aware of health-related issues and are increasingly concerned about the nutritional content and functional value of their food. There is an increasing demand on light products with reduced fat and calories, and a shift to nutritionally fortied food products, for example, iodised salt, vitamin fortied fruit juices, digestion supporting breakfast cereals or calcium-enhanced milk products (Lohr & Dittrich, 2007).

15.5 The Issue of Localising Sustainable Food Practises

In the emerging Indian megacity of Hyderabad research on the food question is not a big issue, and knowledge about the metropolitan food system and its environmental impact on which to base action is still very scarce. Pilot research projects carried out under the framework of the Sustainable Megacity Hyderabad project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in 2006 focused on food insecurity, nutritional status and health, consumer cooperatives, street food vendors, and changing food purchasing and consumption patterns. They were the rst studies of the kind and the collected data on nutritional status were the rst compiled in well over a decade (Helmerich, Moid, Hanisch, & Wulf, 2007; Lohr & Dittrich, 2007; Smith et al., 2007; The Community Studies Team, 2007; Wipper & Dittrich, 2007). All these studies showed that every sub-system of Hyderabads food scenario is subject to dynamic re-framing following changes in structural characteristics of the urban society and wider trends of the globalising economy. New lifestyle patterns of the citys afuent classes, their growing demand for highly processed, fast and convenience food and a higher amount of kitchen appliances accompanied by the shift to motorised purchasing practises reect the

17

People with diabetes are 25 times more likely to develop blindness, 17 times more likely develop kidney disease, two to four times more likely to develop myocardial infarction and twice as likely to suffer a stroke than non-diabetics.

278

C. Dittrich

trend towards westernised standards of energy and natural resource consumption. This goes hand in hand with a new aesthetisation and emotionalisation of food consumption, which put forth new patterns of nutrition practises and event consumption. These attitudes of consumerism with high environmental impact substantially contribute to the overutilisation of the natural resource base of the region resulting in deteriorating environmental conditions and contributing signicantly to the citys growing CO2-emissions.18 High concentrations of noise, air and water pollution, accompanied by unsolved problems of waste generation also pose serious constraints to sustainable development. Since 2001 the number of privately owned cars in Hyderabad has approximately doubled. In the narrow old town streets and along the aterial roads air pollutants and noise emissions already exceed the World Health Organisations threshold values by more than tenfold (Gosh, 2007). The city also produces about 3,000 tons of solid waste every day, and most of it is not generated by the poor. Low-income groups produce only 0.5 kg of solid waste per head and day, whereas the consuming middle classes produce up to 2.0 kg per head. Thus the low-income groups are the losers of the modernisation process in two senses: They cannot afford modern consumer items and at the same time they suffer most from the consequences of extensive resource exploitation and environmental pollution, not to mention the widely ignored food insecurity and nutrition problems of the disadvantaged population groups. The above-mentioned pilot research studies also revealed, that technical approaches alone will not sufce to achieve a resource-extensive, socioeconomically sustainable and low-emission urban food system for Hyderabad. A more holistic and contextualised perspective is required that also has to take into account the complex socio-political nature of food provisioning and food consumption of all segments of society. Food consumption must therefore be understood as a socially and institutionally created set of practises, or as Tischner and Kjaernes (2007) stated:
Food consumption is a form of social action and cannot be reduced to a conscious decision at the point of purchase. We have to consider that consumption practices happen within social institutions like the family, work, and the marketplace and that these practises are themselves institutionalised.

For the Indian context it always has to be emphasised that food-consumption issues must both be linked to questions of food and nutrition security and be embedded in wider production-consumption systems.19 The poverty-stricken population of Hyderabad lacks both adequate food intake and nutrious food products (The Community Studies Team, 2007). The studies also clearly pointed out that any attempts to change the lifestyles of the afuent population groups in accordance with the
According to Myers and Kent (2003) the Indian middle classes account for less than one-eighth of the year 2000 population but two-fth of the countrys purchasing power. With respect to the major sector of transportation, primarily cars, they accounted for eighty-ve per cent of private spending. Their per-capita energy consumption has been causing CO2-emissions fteen times greater than those of the disadvantaged population groups; see also Reusswig et al. (2005). 19 For the theoretical framework on sustainable consumption practises see the contribution of Spaargaren and van Koppen Chapter 5 in this volume.
18

15 Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity

279

struggle against climate change has to address the questions of whether climate change matters to people and if so, or if not, how and why. Otherwise every attempt to communicate the issue and to change purchasing and consumption patterns is doomed to fail. Another important facet of the big issue Food Sustainability Transition would involve a fundamental change in direction towards localising rather than globalising food activities. Experiences from Europe and the US reveal that localisation, essentially a process of decentralisation, entails far less social and environmental upheaval and induces a lot of benets for many instead of concentrating the food business in the hands of a few mega-corporations (Spaargaren, 2004). Sustainably decentralising food retailing in the Hyderabad context would imply the protection and strengthening of the already existing retail system of demand-oriented kiranashops and street food vendors, which is highly resource-extensive, low-emission and employment-generating. Localisation of food systems also means that farmers can grow varieties that are best suited to local climate and soils, allowing avour and nutrition to take precedence over transportability, shelf life and the whims of the global market. The strengthening of community markets would also give farmers an incentive to diversify their crops which leads itself to organic methods, since crops are far less susceptible to pest infections. The role of consumers in this context could simply be to substitute products from their region for products produced far away to select seasonal products and purchase closer to the local/regional producers, for example, by going to farmer markets. From the consumer perspective, the implications and scope of daily food routines will depend on how food mileage and sustainability issues are reected in product information and branding, product diversity, quality, price and mode of distribution. All these issues and the socio-cultural and political potential for more sustainability in the food scenario of Hyderabad must be studied locally and more specically.

References
Ablett, J., Baijal, A., Beinhocker, E., Bose, A., Farell, D., Gersch, U., Greenber, E., Gupta, S., & Gupta, S. (2007). The bird of gold: The rise of Indias consumer market. San Francisco: McKinsey Global Institute. Bhattacharyya, P., & Chakraborty, G. (2005). Current Status of organic farming in India and other countries. Indian Journal of Fertilisers, 1(9), 111123. Dittrich, C. (2008). Bedroht, verdr ngt und doch gebraucht: Der mobile Kleinhandel mit a Nahrungsmitteln in der indischen Metropole Hyderabad. Geographische Rundschau, 60(4), 2229. Fernandes, L. (2006). Indias new middle class: Democratic politics in an era of economic reforms. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Fuller, C., & Narasimhan, H. (2007). Information technology professionals and the new-rich middle class in Chennai (Madras). Modern Asian Studies, 41(1), 121150. Gosh, N. (2007). Air pollution in Urban India: The post-liberalisation era. In A. Shaw (Ed.), Indian cities in transition (pp. 125159). Hyderabad: Orient Longman. Helmerich, J., Moid, M., Hanisch, M., & Wulf, B. (2007). Achieving sustainable food security and poverty reduction through consumer cooperatives in Hyderabad: Research reports for analysis and action for sustainable development of Hyderabad; 5. Berlin: Humboldt-University.

280

C. Dittrich

Landy, F., & Ruby, D. (2005, September). The PDS as an entry point for the study of urban governance; the case of the old city of Hyderabad. Paper presented at the Hyderabad workshop, ASCI, Hyderabad. Lohr, K., & Dittrich, C. (2007). Changing food purchasing and consumption habits among urban middle-classes in Hyderabad: Research reports for analysis and action for sustainable development of Hyderabad; 3. Berlin: Humboldt-University. Mawdsley, E. (2004). Indias middle classes and the environment. Development and Change, 25(1), 79103. Myers, N., & Kent, J. (2003). New consumers: The inuence of afuence on the environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) , 100(8), 49634968. Mohan, V., Madan, Z., Jha, R., Deepa, R., & Pradeepa, R. (2004). Diabetes social and economic perspectives in the new millenium. International Journal in Developing Countries, 24, 2935. NCAER (National Council For Applied Economic Research). (2007). The great Indian market. New Delhi. Pingali, P., & Khwaja, Y. (2004). Globalisation of Indian diets and the transformation of the food system. ESA Working Papers, 04-05. Retrieved February 06, 2008, from, http://www.fao.org/es/esa. Pingali, P. (2007). Westernization of Asian diets and the transformation of food systems: Implications for research and policy. Food Policy, 32(3), 281298. Raghunatha, R. D., Vijayapushpam, T., Antony, T. G. M., Subba Rao, G. M. & Rameshwar Sarma, K. V. (2004, December). Nutrition knowledge and dietary habits of school going girls in Hyderbad. Paper presented at the National Conference on Human Health and Nutrition, Hyderabad. Reusswig, F., Lotze-Campen, H., & Gerlinger, K. (2005). Changing global lifestyle and consumption-patterns: The case of energy and food. In G. Radhakrishna (Ed.), Consumer behaviour: Effective measurement tools (pp. 197210). Hyderabad: The ICFAI University Press. Shetty, P. S. (2002). Nutrition transition in India. Public Health Nutrition, 5(1A), 175182. Sridharan, E. (2004). The growth and sectoral composition of Indias middle class. India Review, 3(4), 405428. Smith, N., Garrett, J., & Vardhan, V. (2007). Food and nutrition in Hyderabad: Current knowledge and priorities for action in an urban setting: Research reports for analysis and action for sustainable development of Hyderabad; 1. Berlin: Humboldt-University. Spaargaren, G. (2004). Sustainable consumption: A theoretical and environmental policy perspective. In D. H. Southerton, H. Chappells, & B. Van Vliet (Eds.), Sustainable consumption: The implications of changing infrastructures of provision (pp. 1531). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. The Community Studies Team. (2007): Food and nutritional security in the slums of Hyderabad: Research reports for analysis and action for sustainable development of Hyderabad; 2. Berlin: Humboldt-University. Tischner, U., & Kjaernes, U. (2007, June). Sustainable consumption and production in the agriculture and food domain. In S. Lahlou, & S. Emmert (Eds.), SCP cases in the eld of food, mobility and housing. Paper presented at the workshop of the Sustainable Consumpton Research Exchange (SCORE!) Network, Paris. Retrieved February 05, 2008, from, http://www.scorenetwork.org/les/9594 Proceedings worshop.07.pdf. Vijayapushpam, T., Menon, K., Raghunatha Rao, D., & Antony, T. G. M. (2002). A qualitative assessment of nutrition knowledge levels and dietary intake of school children in Hyderabad. Public Health Nutrition, 6(7), 683688. Wipper, M., & Dittrich, C. (2007). Urban street food vendors in the food provisioning system of Hyderabad: Research reports for analysis and action for sustainable development of Hyderabad; 4. Berlin: Humboldt-University.