Early morning on October 14, Mohammed Azam Khan, director and co-founder of the NGO Social Data Initiatives Forum (SDIF) started to get distress calls. Over a 100 colonies had been flooded overnight. By 8am of October 14, Khan and his son Ibrahim were at Nadeem Colony with five boats and two volunteers from the Yacht Club of Hyderabad. Three months later Azam Khan is still working to get businesses back on their feet in Hyderabad. He is also rebuilding houses in surrounding villages, where rains washed them away. In 40 villages near Doulatabad, Hathnoora and Narsapur he is involved in the community in relief work. Warm clothes for winter are being distributed. Education is a priority, as it is the first to be dropped when incomes are affected. Azam Khan’s work continues.

On October 13, 2020, Hyderabad was battered by a cyclonic depression and recorded the highest October rainfall since 1903, flooding more than a dozen areas in the city. Responding to distress calls, Mohammed Azam Khan & his NGO Social Data Initiatives Forum (SDIF) stepped in to provide relief.

Azam Khan (centre) director and co-founder – with Khalid Saifullah (right) -- of the NGO Social Data Initiatives Forum (SDIF) sprang into action arranging boats, volunteers and relief efforts; its helpline coordinated by Feroz Baig (left). The three discuss ongoing relief work at their office.

Artist Abdul Lateef Farooqui depicts scenes from the Hyderabad floods of October 13 at the SDIF headquarters in Banjara Hills.

The drawing shows water rising between four and 12 feet inundated houses and streets, drowning vehicles, property, and stranded people on rooftops.

Surveying the damage. Three months after the Hyderabad floods, Azam Khan and SDIF are still working to get homes and businesses in affected areas like Al Jubail colony near Falaknuma back on their feet. Flood waters in Al Jubail reached up to six feet as the waterway became blocked.

One of the businesses ruined by the Hyderabad floods of October 2020 was MS Printers owned by Mohammed Ilyas (left) in Al Jubail. At SDIF, Azam Khan (right) arranges funding while local volunteers (from left) Mobeen Khan, Mohd Ikram ul Haq and Sheikh Zubair Ahmed help identify businesses in need.

Azam Khan is also working in 40 villages around Hyderabad where the heavy rains caused houses to collapse. In Doulatabad, he meets with the sarpanch K Venkateshan (second from left) and volunteer Mohammed Hashim (centre) to involve the community in assessing the damage and rebuilding the homes.

As Hyderabad received its greatest October rainfall in over a hundred years, in Doulatabad village, Pilla Mulla Yellama’s mud house disintegrated. Standing with daughter Anusha, Yellama’s will be one of the houses rebuilt with the aid of SDIF and Azam Khan.

Extending aid out of Hyderabad and into villages like Doulatabad for flood relief, Azam Khan and volunteers identified families like Kausarunnissa and Mohammed Mumtaz, to financially support rebuilding efforts after part of their house collapsed.

As the magnitude of the destruction caused by the Hyderabad floods became apparent, SDIF systematically directed relief work in every zone of the city including rescue operations and distribution of essential kits containing dry clothes and sanitary supplies, and ration and educational kits.

Azam Khan set up the Hyderabad Flood Relief Coalition with over a dozen major NGOs.

Including Goonj, Youngistan and UNICEF and raised more than Rs 50 lakh to aid those affected by the flood.

Khan also set up a network of collection centres for clothes and medicine for those affected by the Hyderabad floods. These were sorted and put out into kits by 500 volunteers under his supervision at the temporary headquarters in Banjara Hills.

As part of the relief efforts after the Hyderabad floods, SDIF also identified that children needed something to call their own. School bags had been a casualty and so school kits with bags and notebooks, pencils and colour pencils were distributed.

Azam Khan provides warm clothes to college students at Doulatabad village. Education is another area that Khan supports from facilitating scholarships and providing equipment and new clothes to actually going house to house in villages to have parents enroll children in school.

Asiya Ahmed Khan has been husband Azam Khan’s companion in all his work including education. A naturalist, she managed flood relief efforts supervising the sorting and set creation for all the women’s clothes and ensuring everything was done hygienically.

Azam Khan credits his parents Mohammed Ashraf Khan and Mohammadi Khatoon for his commitment to philanthropic work. It also led to the founding of SDIF in 2019. In 2020, the NGO provided ration during the lockdown, helped migrant workers, and set up a COVID helpline amongst other initiatives.

Another of the businesses affected by the Hyderabad floods of October 2020 was Ahmed Traders owned by Sheikh Ahmed Hussain in Al Jubail colony. Hussain supplies rexine used in autos and clothing accessories, but the waters have ruined the material.

After the floods SDIF set up a collection centre for clothes and medicine, and Hyderabad responded. Volunteers created essential kits that included clothing, sanitary needs, toiletries, footwear, blankets and warm clothes.

SDIF volunteers waded through neck deep water in Tolichowki, Saroor Nagar and Falaknuma in the rescue efforts after the Hyderabad Floods. On December 27, they received certificates and medals from the Hyderabad Flood Relief Coalition to acknowledge their valour. The chief guest present was human rights activist Harsh Mander, Director of Delhi-based Centre for Equity Studies.

As Hyderabad received its greatest October rainfall in over a hundred years, in nearby Doulatabad village, Pilla Mulla Yellama’s mud house was washed away. It has been identified as one of the houses to be rebuilt with the aid of SDIF and Azam Khan.

In Doulatabad village near Hyderabad, Fatima Begum’s house was one that was completely washed away during the October 13 rains. The mother of two moved into her in-laws house next door. She has been identified by SDIF as one of the people who will receive financial and material help to rebuild.